Jurassic World: Speciation
by MysteryWriter2187
Summary: Three years after the events of Fallen Kingdom, Maisie begins to experience strange and horrific side effects from her grandfather's work, while Claire and Owen try to have humans and dinosaurs coexist. Forces from the past and present must join forces to permanently relocate the dinosaurs and save them from a threat much darker than any hybrid. Now complete.
1. Sealy Of Approval

_"Tonight, we're joined by former game hunter turned founder of the Human Liberation Front, Karla Sealy. Welcome to the show, Miss Sealy..."_

"Thank you. It's good to be here..."

 _"Tell us about yourself, Miss Sealy. Your father, Michael Sealy, was a world-famous explorer and archaeologist. What did he have to say about your love of game hunting..."_

"Well, I suppose I've always had an interest in taxidermy and natural history, but I never thought much of it as a career until my father, God rest his soul, passed on and I inherited his fortune... so I decided to make the most of it, really. I spent about four years navigating Africa, Peru and Central America, hunting and cataloguing endangered species. After the Lockwood incident in 2018, I set up the _HLF_ for the betterment of public safety and humanity's survival. I'm sure we can all understand that, can't we?"

 _"Well, some find your methods to be brutal and unnecessary, as well as being disturbed by the fact that you're openly trying to hunt the dinosaurs back to extinction. Your most vocal critic by far is Claire Grady of the Dinosaur Protection Group, who's suggested that you're only doing this to further your own ego and even enjoy the art of killing. What have you to say about these controversies, Miss Sealy?"_

"I don't apologise for what I've done. I've no regret for it at all... these beasts had their chance 65 million years ago and it didn't work out. It was foolishness and greed that brought them back into this world, and look at all the death and destruction that's transpired. And I find it rather ironic that Mrs Grady has chosen to criticise me for this, seeing that it was _her_ actions on Isla Nublar that necessitated my methods and the _HLF_ to begin with. Any blood that is spilled in this conflict, be it human or dinosaur... it's on _your_ hands, Claire. And it always has been..."

* * *

 **UNIVERSAL PICTURES  
** PRESENTS

* * *

 **Death Valley, California - Human Liberation Front Hunting Fort**

 _"Alright! That's the last of them!"_ one of the traffickers said as they fastened the locks on the last of the many cages they were preparing to lower onto the large ship. The leader of the traffickers, a thirty-something Nigerian woman named Adaku Kingston, examined each of the cages and the dinosaurs inside of them. They were all herbivores this time, ranging from _Triceratops_ to _Ankylosaurus_ to _Stegosaurus_.

 _ **"Quiet!"**_ she snapped as she slammed the butt of her rifle against a cage, prompting the adolescent Ankylosaurus inside to stop crying out for it's mother. _**"A shame we won't get to kill any of these ones... LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"**_

* * *

A FILM BY  
 **J.A. BAYONA**

* * *

As the crew members disembarked the ship in order to untie it from the dock, the main deck was empty, allowing a hooded figure to climb over from the side of the lock. He wore a mask sculpted messily to resemble a _Velociraptor_ , and pulled a small flare out of his pocket and lit it to get the captured dinosaurs' attention. They all groaned and called out to him as he slowly walked over to the cells, going into his utility belt and pulling out several sticks of dynamite, placing each one through the bars of a cage.

 _"Alright..."_ he said as he reached for the detonator in his pocket. _"Let's get you girls out of here..."_

 _ **CLICK-CLICK!**_ "Not so fast..."

The masked man put his hands up in surrender and slowly got to his feet as he turned to see Kingston aiming her rifle at him. Escape seemed hopeless as the other traffickers stood behind their captain, all of them having their machetes and pistols out.

 _"You got me..."_ he snarked without much concern, still keeping his mask on. Kingston scoffed in response, saying "so... you are the _iwin_ who keeps stealing all of our dinosaurs, then..."

 _"I free them... save them... if anyone's stealing anything here, it's you people..."_

"These dinosaurs belong to our employer's new friend..." Kingston said as she kept aiming the rifle. "We cannot have you absconding with these ones tonight... boys..."

The traffickers all aimed their guns, but the man remained confident. _"There's more than one of us... if you kill me, someone else will do it..."_

"Then we'll just kill them too..." Kingston snarked. Before she could give the order to open fire, the man nodded calmly, saying _"suit yourselves..."_ as he pulled out the detonator and pressed it quickly.

 _ **BOOM!**_ the dynamite hanging from the bars of the cages were set off, creating large holes in the prisons and ship and startling the beasts inside. **_"Shit!"_** Kingston narrowly got out of the way as the Triceratops family stormed out of their cage, trampling and crushing any trafficker unfortunate enough to get under their feet.

The masked man leapt over the side of the ship, landing on a camouflaged black motorcycle that was parked on the ground and quickly starting it. _**VROOOOM! VROOM-VROOM!**_

The sound of the engine was accompanied by a recorded sound of a herbivore's roar, prompting the dinosaurs to follow it as the motorcycle sped away from the ship towards the woods. As the ship was emptied of dinosaurs and they all escaped after the motorcycle, Kingston groaned as she and the dozen men she had left after the rampage got up off the ground and watched where the man and the rescued beasts had gone

 _ **"Karla Sealy will hear about this!"**_ she shouted again as the figure drove off into the night, disappearing into the bushes with the dinosaurs following him. **_"Do you hear me?! You are a dead man!"_**

* * *

 **JURASSIC WORLD  
** SPECIATION


	2. Maisiemorphisis

**Grady Family Cabin**

 _"Maze?"_ Owen slowly opened the front door and came into the living room. The TV and lights were off, with the sunlight coming through the doorway being the only thing giving the room any illumination. _"Maze?... Maisie, are you in here? Hm..."_

Someone must have been in the house since the door was unlocked when he opened it, unless Maise had left it unlocked after leaving. But why would she leave?

As Owen thought about this, he reached his hand behind the door to switch on the light. **_"RRRRAAAGGGHHH! Ha ha ha ha ha!"_**

 _"Oh, he's down! She's got him! Agh, the carnage! The horror! Ha ha ha!"_ Owen wheezed out with a laugh as the giggling thirteen year-old finally got off his back and pulled him up from the floor.

"Hi, Owen!" he'd been up for barely a second as she threw her arms around him again, this time for a hug instead of a sneak-attack. After returning the embrace, he managed to pry himself free as he said _"well, three years in to this whole thing... I really shoulda gotten used to that kinda greeting by now, huh kid?"_

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Maisie was still chortling, calming down a bit as she said "ooh, is Claire still at the reserve?"

 _"She is, indeed. I'm here to take you down there before the new arrival shows up..."_

 ** _"What?! Are you serious?! Well, what are we waiting for? Come on, let's go!"_** Maisie quickly took off into her room, coming back within half a minute wearing her hiking boots and jacket as she grabbed Owen by the hand and yanked him out the door.

* * *

 **DPG Hammond And Lockwood Memorial Reserve**

 _"Hey, there you guys are!"_ Claire called happily as Owen and Maisie got out of the car and the latter ran straight past her up to the large fence. Claire was amused by this as she and Owen stood behind her holding hands, all three of them watching as the large loading truck reversed towards the opened section of the fence.

Zia and Franklin were standing next to it, Claire giggling almost as excitedly as Maisie was as she said _"alright, you two! Let her in!"_

"Claire, are you sure about this?" Zia called as her hand rested on the lever at the back of the trailer. Claire was taken aback by this, sounding almost offended as she said _"what are you talking about? Of course I am! Let her in!"_

Zia sighed, saying "alright... if you say so, boss..." as she pulled the lever down. They all watched as the _Parasaurolophus_ slowly and shyly stepped out of the trailer and into the fenced area, treading lightly as if the grass under her feet was an unfamiliar experience.

After a few moments to adjust, the beast took off at a great speed to explore the rest of the reserve, which was filled with dozens of other herbivorous species grazing and sleeping peacefully. The 2560 acre area was split into two equal sections, with herbivores in one section and smaller carnivores in the other.

Owen looked at Claire as she typed some numbers into her IPad, saying "so, that's two h..."

 _"That's ninety-seven herbivores, and with a hundred and twenty six carnivores, that's... that's two hundred and twenty three altogether!"_ Claire interrupted excitedly, hugging both Owen and Maisie at once.

As they finally separated and Franklin walked over to talk to Owen and Maisie, Claire noticed Zia walking away from the fence towards her car. _"Zia! Zia, hey!"_

She ran after Zia, who scoffed as she turned to face Claire and said "what?"

 _"Wh... where are you going? Aren't you celebrating with us?"_

"Celebrating what? The three hundredth dinosaur you've just reintroduced to captivity?"

 _"Whoa, wait a second..."_

"Look, I don't wanna start a fight about this... I just... I didn't wanna say anything before, cause I didn't wanna make a scene or something like that, but... Claire, I've had some reservations about what we're doing here..."

 _"Reservations? What are you t..."_

"It's _too much_ , Claire. I mean, I get that we have to coexist with these guys, but... but this just isn't how you can go about doing that..."

 _"But Zia, we did it... alright, Karla Sealy's not gonna wipe the dinosaurs off the face of this with us and this place in her way! If this succeeds, we'll have even more reserves and even more dinosaurs can be protected! We're gonna build a new dinosaur-human utopia!"_

"Ugh... look, Claire. What you gotta understand is that dinosaurs and humans probably have different ideas for what a utopia is." Zia said. "Dinosaurs need room to roam, so crowding them into a 4-square-mile nature reserve isn't how you create an ecosystem. It increases competition for food and habitat and is gonna cause more problems than solutions. Hell, how is what we're doing here any different from Jurassic World?... _Huh?_ "

Claire couldn't find an answer to this, so Zia just shrugged and kept walking away. Once Zia had gotten into her car and driven off, Claire managed to force a smile onto her face as she turned back and went to the others.

* * *

 **Grady Family Cabin**

That night, the three of them sat in the living room watching Owen's old raptor training videos on the laptop. They were watching one of the earlier ones, where Blue first showed her commanding position over her siblings.

* * *

 _"Alright, chow time, chow time... ooh, back up! Back off! **Eh! Eh-eh-eh!** Geez... take it easy... **Echo!** Geez, there's plenty of food... you guys been eating sugar or something, you're hyper today... okay, okay, back up! Thank you, Blue... **whoa!**... Whoa... did you get that?"_

* * *

Owen was trying not to cry as the video ended and he shut the laptop, letting Maisie snuggle against him as he looked at Claire. "funny... y'know... taking care of those little guys was probably the best lesson I had for taking care of _this_ little one, huh..."

 _"Hm... yeah..."_ Claire put her arm around Owen comfortingly, putting her other hand on his chest as she said _"she's out there, Owen... and we're gonna find her..."_

They both looked at Maisie as she yawned, Owen rubbing her head as Claire said _"aw... you tired, sweetie...?"_

"Ugh... yeah..." Maisie laughed weakly, slowly getting up and off of the couch. "I'm just... hmm... aching all over... been a long day..."

"Well, you'll probably once you get a little shut-eye..." Owen said. "I mean, it is _way_ past your bedtime, Maze..."

 _"Yeah... go on, honey... get some sleep..."_ Claire said as Maisie nodded. _"Alright..._ _**goodnight!** "_ Maisie hugged them both quickly yet tightly, before going upstairs to her room.

"She's something special, isn't she?" Owen said warmly, Claire smiling as she kissed him on the cheek and said _"yeah... she sure is..."_

* * *

No matter how hard Maisie tried, no matter how much she tossed and turned in the bed, no matter how tired she felt, she just couldn't sleep. A fierce migraine pierced her head like a knife, and every last inch of her from her cheeks to her shoulders to her fingers to her feet seemed to ache with agony at once, being just painful enough to notice while still allowing her to feel the hours of the night dragging on and on without getting any sleep.

It was about one in the morning when she felt an itch on her left thigh and put her hand down to scratch it. _"Ow!"_ she suddenly shot up, feeling a sharp object cut into her flesh and clutching it as it started to bleed. _"No, no, no, no, no! Ugh!"_ Maisie quickly climbed out of the bed, trying to make as little noise as possible as she crept over the floorboards and turned on the light at the end of the room so she could see what she was doing.

The cut on her leg wasn't that severe, but the blood that was leaking out from behind her hand had already reached her ankle. She pressed her free hand against her head, thinking about what Owen had taught her to do in this kind of situation. _"Uh... right... uh... um... ooh, first aid kit! Under the bed!"_

As she turned back around to get it, she hadn't expected to notice her reflection in the mirror that was next to her bed, freezing with terror as she looked at it for a good ten seconds before letting out an ear-piercing **_"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_**

 ** _"Maisie! Maisie, what's wrong?!"_** she heard Claire's voice and turned to the door as Claire and Owen quickly ran in, both of them going wide-eyed as they saw her. **_"Oh my God!"_**


	3. Malcolm In The Middle

**The Next Morning**

A black SUV drove down the winding roads through the valley of trees and mountains. The man driving hummed along to the song that was playing on the radio.

 _I've looked at clouds from both sides now_  
 _From up and down and still somehow_  
 _It's cloud's illusions I recall_  
 _I really don't know clouds  
At all..._

Owen glanced out the window, seeing the black car parking slowly to a halt on the drive and the man stepping out. _"Claire... Claire, he's here..."_

* * *

"I just... I just can't thank you enough for coming, Doctor..." Claire said as she and Owen led the man up the stairs to the door of Maisie's room. They both stood back to let the grey-haired man open the door, which was pitch black with the blinds drawn and the lights switched off.

 _"Pretty uh... dark, I guess..."_ he snarked, before reaching for the light switch.

 ** _"Don't... touch it!"_**

The man tried to look into the dark room to see where the voice had come from. Eventually, he spotted the vague silhouette of a figure sitting curled up on the bed in the corner of the room, though no distinguishable features were visible on the shadow.

 _"Okay... okay, so uh... hey there... it's uh... it's Maisie, right..."_ he said, with the only response being a barely audible scoff. _"Right... well, uh... Maisie, my name is Dr Malcolm."_

 ** _"I know exactly who you are... I could hear them on the phone from downstairs with two doors shut..."_** the voice snarked bitterly. Malcolm took a few steps further into the room, still not being able to make out any details on the girl.

 _"Well, I uh... hm... much as it goes against my better judgement, Maisie, I was called here by your guardians to uh... to take a look at you... and I can't really do that without a light..."_

 ** _"No! Don't!"_** the shadow shot up in an attempt to stop Malcolm from switching on the light, only to shrink quickly back onto the bed in a fetal position when he did. Malcolm was wide-eyed as he looked at the beast that was sitting on the bed.

It looked mostly like a human girl, only about thirteen in age, but the less human-child-like qualities stuck out like a sore thumb. Quite literally in the case of the small but somewhat long spines that protruded from the back of its head and led down the back of it's neck and back, having torn straight through the pyjama shirt it was wearing. It's fingers were also like that of a normal child's, but rather than human nails it had long, razor sharp black claws that visibly broke the skin they protruded through. The child's soft-looking skin was covered all over in sizeable patches and blotches of rough, scaly blue, black and green skin, and when she turned her head to look at him these same scales decorated her cheeks and surrounded her piercing, reptilian golden eyes.

 ** _"I warned you..."_** she said in a still growl-like but much more insecure tone, though when opening her mouth she also exposed her fang-like canine teeth and slightly pointed tongue. **_"I told you not to turn it on..."_**

* * *

When Malcolm left the room, Maisie sat against the closed door with her ear pressed to it so she could hear the conversation he was having with Owen and Claire.

 _"Well, uh... gotta admit, she wasn't really a sight for sore eyes or anything..."_ she scoffed as she heard Malcolm say this. _"I mean... well, uh... I'm a chaos theorist, so I can't exactly diagnose her condition..."_

 _"Pft... you don't need to be Alan Grant to notice that she's like... part raptor or something..."_ Owen's voice scoffed in response. Malcolm audibly sighed at this, saying _"yeah... so this Maisie kid... she's the Lockwood girl, right?"_

Maisie went wide-eyed as she heard this, shutting her eyes and putting her hands over her ears as the memory of what Mills said that night started coming back to her.

* * *

 ** _"You have no idea what she is... what do you think drove Hammond and Lockwood apart? Huh...? Lockwood never had a grandchild... he just wanted his daughter back... and he had the technology... he created another... he made her again..."_**

* * *

But her hearing was far more accurate than before, and even with her ears covered Claire's voice sounded clear as day, saying _"yeah, but... she's thirteen years old and she's not shown any dinosaur-like stuff before... I mean... well, she's good at hide-and-seek, I guess, ha ha... but... but it's not really raptor like... at least I didn't think it was..."_

 _"Hm... well she is thirteen... this could be her puberty..."_

 _"Please tell me that's just a sick joke or something..."_ Owen said in a protective tone, prompting Malcolm to chuckle as he said _"well, ha ha... no, it isn't... it's far-fetched, but it's obvious Lockwood used some dinosaur DNA to recreate his dead kid... I mean... is anyone who worked on her still around...?"_

 _"No..."_ Owen said. _"Lockwood and Mills both died on the night, and Wu... well, I dunno if he was involved, but no one's seen him since that night..."_

 _"Yeah... thought not... if anyone could tell what the side effects were gonna be, it'd probably be them... but without 'em, well... she's unpredictable..."_

 _"Well, what are we gonna do about it?"_ Claire then asked.

 _"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but... but I can't help you... you're just gonna have to make the best of it..."_


	4. Target Sealy'd

**Somewhere Off The West Coast - Human Liberation Front Main Camp/HQ**

"Miss Sealy... Kin..."

 _ **"NOT NOW!"**_ Karla shrieked furiously, pulling out a pistol-sized crossbow and firing an arrow into the foot of the trafficker who had just entered her office. He screamed in agony as he landed on his back clutching his foot while Karla spoke on the phone, and a smug, excited grin came to her face as she heard what they were saying on the other side.

 _"Hm... yes... yes, very interesting... oh no, of course. Yes... yes, you can count on me to honour our arrangement, doctor... I'll wait til after you're done to take a piece for myself... oh, come now, you really think that narcissist Malcolm's going to help them...? Ha ha... and here you are questioning my sanity... ugh... alright, we'll talk later... I've an urgent matter of business to take care of... **Zàijiàn**..."_

Karla put the phone down and looked at the man she had shot, putting on a faux-sweet tone as she said _"so... what's the news, dear?"_

"It... gah... it's K... Kingston, ma'am... she's b... back... **AAAAGGGGHHH!** " she stamped on the man's injured foot with a surprising amount of force, chuckling a bit as she said _"excellent. I'll go speak to her, then..."_

* * *

Karla walked out of the office and down the hallway to where Kingston and her men were. The hallway's walls were lined by a series of stuffed dinosaur heads that hung as hunting trophies, with several completely stuffed dinosaurs standing as statues and displays. These would not have looked out of place in a museum of natural history.

 _ **"Adaku! Darling, how good to see you!"**_ Karla called out as she extravagantly entered the room, only for her smile and wide-spread arms to drop in disappointment as she noticed the empty, mangled cages that were behind Kingston and her traffickers. One of the traffickers gulped audibly as Karla's eye twitched slightly and she froze like a statue, saying _"um... where are the dinosaurs...?"_

"Miss Sealy... Miss Sealy, I assure you, we had dozens captured, bu- **WHOA!** "

 _ **ZZZZZZIP! ARGH!**_ Kingston tensed in fear as Karla pulled out the crossbow and suddenly fired an arrow straight into the forehead of one of the other traffickers. Everyone went silent as the man fell back lifelessly like a ragdoll, with the bloody head-point of the arrow protruding from the back of his head. Karla straightened herself up and exhaled lightly, pulling out another arrow from the pouch on her belt as she said _"terribly sorry about that, it's just... well, I just found out you didn't have any dinosaurs for our new friend, so I needed to let off a little steam before I heard your excuses..."_

 _ **CLICK-CLICK!**_ she casually loaded the new arrow into the crossbow, twirling it in her hand as she added _"now... let's hear those excuses, shall we, Adaku?"_

"It's a dinosaur man!" one of the shorter men said as Karla kept the crossbow aimed at Kingston's face. Kingston panted quickly as she added "a masked vigilante... he is an _iwin_ , a ghost, who comes in the night and releases the dinosaurs we capture... we almost had him before we left, but he says there are more just like him..."

Karla kept the crossbow aimed at a petrified, sweaty Kingston's head for a good extra five seconds, before casually chuckling as she put it down and said _"well, as far as excuses usually go... that wasn't bad..."_

She turned away from them, saying _"funnily enough, I've just got a call regarding a dinosaur person... an actual one, though, no masks... living with our dear friends, the Gradys, on their reserve..."_

Kingston and her men went wide-eyed at this, while Karla opened a cabinet in the corner and pulled out an empty wooden trophy shield. _"Hm... yes... yes, this'll do just nicely... now, I need you lot to pay a visit to that little Hammond And Lockwood dinosaur park... one last big collection..."_

Removing the adolescent _Triceratops_ that hung in the middle of the long line of dinosaur heads placed on the wall, and throwing it in the fireplace for good measure, Karla placed this new shield in it's place. Kingston gulped as Karla turned back to them, fumbling her hands nervously as she said "so... what exactly do you want us to do about the _iwin_ , Miss Sealy...?"

 _"It's quite simple, dear... you take care of your dino-human..."_ Karla suddenly drew out the crossbow again, firing the arrow directly into the centre of the new shield. _"And I'll take care of mine..."_


	5. A Cut Above The Rest

Later that afternoon, Maisie walked through the small town near to the cabin. She wore one of Owen's old hoodies that was too big for her, so it helped to crease down the spines to stop them from sticking out. She wore sunglasses to cover her eyes and had her gloved hands in the pockets to conceal her claws.

 _Pale, pubescent beasts, roam through the streets_  
 _And coffee-shops_

When she went into the local coffee shop, she growled lowly as she noticed the long line of tired, miserable people that she'd just joined the back of. _**"Ugh... are you actually serious?!"**_

 _But while they search for a mate, my type hibernate_  
 _In bedrooms above_  
 _Composing their songs of love_

After about twenty minutes of the line moving at a snail's pace with her still standing at the back, a man entered the shop and joined the line, ignorantly barging into Maisie so that she fell onto her knees. He groaned arrogantly, saying _"Christ, why don't you watch where you're standing, kid!?"_

 _ **"GGGGGRRRAAAAAAGGGHHHH!"**_ Maisie shot around to face the man, snarling and baring her fang-like teeth and prompting him to scream like a toddler as he quickly darted out of the shop and ran down the road.

 _While I try to find words, as light as the birds_  
 _That circle above_  
 _To put in my songs of love_

Eventually, Maisie reached the front of the line, keeping her face hidden under the hood as she ordered two large coffees and a small one for herself. She held a cardboard tray with the two bigger coffees on it while drink her own as she went to the exit.

A baby was sitting in a pram near the door, and Maisie stopped to smile at him. **_"WAAAAAHH!"_** the child shrieked out as he saw what Maisie looked like, prompting her to quickly dart out of the coffee shop and shut the door behind her.

 _So sing, while you have time_  
 _Let the sun shine, down from above_  
 _And fill you with songs of love_

 _Take me..._

Owen was nearly done hammering their new mailbox into the ground as he saw Maisie heading up the hill towards him. "Hey, kiddo! How'd it go?"

When Maisie hugged him and passed him the tray with the two remaining coffees, she said _**"it went fine... not a trouble..."**_ through slightly gritted teeth. _**"I'm going back to bed..."**_

"Uh... it's four in the afternoon, Maze..."

 _ **"Pft... just because I have raptor DNA doesn't mean I can't get tired..."**_ she scoffed back in a snarky tone as she went back into the house. Nearly darting on all fours up the stairs and to her room, she gracefully kicked the door shut behind her and quickly pulled off Owen's hoodie.

She had a terrible itch on her head and the spines sticking out of it were twitching furiously after having been trapped under the hood for all that time.

 _Fate doesn't hang on a wrong, or right choice_

Maisie went to her closet mirror, turning around and lifting up her shirt to look at the spines sticking out of her back, and groaning as she saw them getting slightly longer than before.

 _So let's sing, while we still can_  
 _While the sun hangs, high up above_  
 _Wonderful songs of love_

 ** _"I've got to get rid of these things... somehow..."_**

 _Beautiful songs of love_

* * *

That night, Maisie sat with her back facing the bathroom mirror with a pair of scissors, lowering her head slightly to give herself a better view of the spines. She had lifted the backside of her shirt up so that the scissors could get as close as possible to the roots of each spine on her back.

 ** _"Ugh! Ow!"_** she tried her hardest to cut through them, but the scissors just weren't sharp enough. And they were the sharpest in the entire house.

 _ **KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!**_ _"Uh... Maisie, sweetheart..."_

Maisie froze and went wide-eyed as she heard Claire's voice on the other side of the door. She noticed the door-knob turning as Claire tried to open it, quickly saying _**"no, no! D... don't come in, Claire, please I'm... I'm really busy!"**_

 _"Oh, right... okay, well uh... I was just gonna ask what you wanted for dinner tonight..."_

Maisie continued trying to cut one of the spines as she said _**"um... I uh... I don't... I don't really mind, to be honest, just... I'll just have whatever you and Owen are having! OW!"**_

She'd slipped her hand slightly and caused the scissors to jab her slightly in the back. It hadn't cut her skin, but it still hurt and caused her to yelp loud enough for Claire to hear.

 _"Maisie? Maisie, what are you doing in there?!"_ she asked sternly as the door-knob began to turn again. Maisie tried to quickly put the scissors back in their case, but dropped it and caused all the utensils to come clattering down onto the floor. _**"No, Claire! Don't come in, I'm naked! Oh..."**_

It was too late. Claire had already opened the door and was both perplexed and horrified at what she was seeing: a tearful Maisie with the back of her shirt up, her spines sticking out, the mirror, the scissors. Maisie knew by the glare that Claire had immediately figured out exactly what was happening, and she was _not_ happy about it. Not one bit.

 _"Maisie..."_

 _ **"Shit..."**_


	6. The Maisie Runner

**AN: Well, I know it's been a while, but I've finally decided to get back to this story. Sorry for taking so long but hopefully the wait hasn't been too frustrating. I promise I won't take this long to update _Speciation_ again. Anyway...**

* * *

 _ **"Oh, just admit it already! I'm a freak!"**_

Both Owen and Claire went wide-eyed as Maisie said this, having interrupted the brief quarrel the couple had managed to get into once Claire had told Owen what happened in the bathroom. Claire was the first to break the silence, saying _"no, Maze, we're not saying that you're..."_

 _ **"Admit it!"**_

 _"We're not going to admit that, Maisie, because it's not true!"_

 _ **"How is it not true?! I was in the line at a coffee shop today and not one person looked half-dinosaur! Not one!"**_

"So, you don't look anybody else, sure..." Owen tried to keep the situation calm, saying "but that's not necessarily a bad thing, Maze. We can deal with this, and we will."

 ** _"HOW?! You're just telling me we're going to pull through, or we're going to deal with this, or whatever, but you're not telling me how we're supposed to do that! How ARE we supposed to do it?!"_**

 _"Look, we don't know, Maisie, okay?!"_ Claire still tried to sound calm as she said this, pinching the bridge of her nose as she tried to come up with something.

Owen broke the silence with "alright, maybe... maybe if you wear a lot of layers and file your nails down a couple times a month you wouldn't look as conspicuous..."

 _ **"File my nails? More layers? Oh for Gods' sake, like that's going to work?!"**_ Maisie was sure she'd have burst into laughter if she were not so stressed out by her situation. _ **"You might as well put me in the reserve with the rest of the dinosaurs!"**_

 _"Maisie, you're being over dramatic. We're not gonna do that."_ Claire said.

 _ **"Well, where else am I supposed to go, Claire? You tell me! Because I'm sure Xavier's school is fully booked! Ugh! Why is this even a discussion right now?!"**_ Maisie stood off of the coach and stormed off towards the stairs.

Owen remained casual as he said "there's no use walking away, Maze, we're still talking about this!"

 _ **"Just leave me alone!"**_

 _"Maisie, please!"_ Claire sounded desperate as she reached for Maisie's hand, barely just getting a hold of it.

 ** _"Rrrraaagh!"_** Maisie snarled as she snapped back around, yanking her hand back as Claire fell down with a shriek. Owen caught Claire as she landed back, Maisie still heaving angrily at them with her fists clenched and nostrils flaring animalistically.

After about five seconds, Maisie's breathing went from a moody heaving to a panicked panting as she saw the bloody claw marks on Claire's forearm, looking down at her own hand to see the same blood dripping from her claws. **_"Oh... I... I um..."_**

Owen knew she was worried, putting up a hand as if he were calming his raptors again as he said "alight, Maze... just keep calm, I know it looks bad, but... just keep calm..."

 ** _"I... I... Claire, I'm... Claire, I'm sorry, I... oh... oh no..."_** Maisie was letting tears go down her face as she backed into one of the stairs, still panting heavily as her eyes nearly bulged out her head.

 _"Maze... Maisie, it's okay..."_ Claire reached her non-injured hand towards Maisie again, but the girl turned around and darted on all-fours up the stairs. _"Maze-Maisie! No, honey it's not your fault, it was an accident!"_

Owen held Claire back as Maisie ran into her bedroom and shut the door behind her. Claire still struggled to escape his grip, but eventually calmed down as she sat back on the floor.

"She'll be fine... Claire, just..." Owen held his wife close to him and brought her to the kitchen to find something to put on her arm. "We'll just... just give her some time to calm down, okay?"

* * *

About an hour had passed when Owen and Claire finally decided to make their way up the stairs.

Claire sighed, knocking on the door as she looked at her now bandaged arm. Owen leaned closer to the door than his wife, breaking the silence as he said "uh... hey Maze... um, well I uh... I think we've all had a breather, so... maybe we can talk about this now. Without getting mad. Maze?"

There was no answer, so Claire tried next. _"Maisie, come on, open up..."_

"Ugh... Maze, y'know this door has no lock, we can open it just fine if you won't..." Owen said, waiting about five seconds for a response before roling his eyes and saying "ooooo-kay then..."

Claire sighed as he said this, twisting the door knob and walking into the bedroom. _"Maze... look, sweetheart, I'm sorry, but it was... Maze...? Maisie?!"_

She and Owen darted over to the empty bed, looking all around the empty room. She wasn't there, the closet door was open and half-emptied of it's clothes and the window in the corner was wide open.

 _ **"MAISIE!"**_


	7. The Brunt Of The Hunt

When she stopped to rest on a hill Maisie had been running for about half an hour, and she was certain that she'd now travelled about four times further than she used to be able to in that time. It was late dusk and there was a purplish-red gradient in the sky, and from where Maisie was sitting she was able to see the spotlights of the Hammond And Lockwood Reserve and could hear the faint sounds of the dinosaurs from it.

She may have been the one to suggest moving herself in there full-time, but she knew that neither Claire or Owen would stand for it and that would be the first place they checked once they went looking. She had to get as far away from them as possible right now.

It suddenly occurred to her that she probably should have packed something from the kitchen before she left, especially since she didn't have any dinner. Now the hunger was getting to her, and she assumed her raptor genes was the thing making her hunger even more ravenous than usual. _**SNIFF! SNIFF-SNIFF-SNIFF!**_

She turned around on the spot as her nose suddenly picked up the smell, going wide-eyed as she noticed a faint trail of smoke coming from the trees ahead. It seemed to be from a fireplace, from the old, wooden lodge that was about half a mile away from the bottom of the hill. Owen had told her this old place had been abandoned when the old hunter that lived there died before Owen built his cabin, so it didn't make that much sense for someone to have suddenly moved in.

But if there was someone there, it was very likely they had food, and Maisie couldn't go on much longer with an empty stomach. So this was a risk she had to take as she quickly ran down the hill and headed into the woods towards this old hunting lodge.

* * *

 _ **Cccccccccccccccccccrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkk...**_ Maisie's head poked slowly through the door as she looked inside. There was no one there, but the fire was lit and there were a few lamps plugged in to give it an extra bit of light. If no one was home right now, it definitely wasn't going to be for long.

There was a built-in pantry in one corner of the house with it's door wide open, but in the opposite corner there was a plugged-in, electronic refrigerator. Closing the front door behind her, Maisie quickly darted over to the fridge and threw it open. She grabbed a Twix bar and a full carton of orange juice, tearing off the wrapping and devouring the chocolate whole before cracking open the carton and taking five deep swigs of it.

She put the carton back and closed the fridge door, allowing her eye to catch a glimpse of the A3 sheet that was placed on the desk under a lamp. They were blueprints of some kind, and Maisie recognised the vague shape of the building on them as she walked over to get a better look. It was a birds-eye-view of a 2560 acre area split into two equal sections, with a series of X shapes drawn all over it in red pen. Maisie's eyes went wide as she looked at the bottom of the sheet.

 **Dinosaur Protection Group - Hammond And Lockwood Memorial Reserve**

 _ **CRASH!**_

Maisie jolted up as she heard the flash of lightning, looking at the window to see the rain that was now coming down rapidly in the night. Her ears pricked up as she heard the _**PLOP! PLOP! PLOP!**_ of booted feet walking through the muddy ground towards the building, making a _**cccrrreeeaaakkkk...**_ sound when they walked onto the wooden porch.

 ** _"Shit..."_** Maisie said to herself as she darted to the first hiding spot she could find. She slid under the wooden table in front of the pantry door, keeping herself in the shadows as the door was thrown open, the moon casting a long rectangle of white light with the figure's silhouette.

The woman was dripping wet from the rain pouring outside, and was holding what appeared to be a reptilian skin over herself like a poncho as she came in. Maisie remained in her hiding spot as the figure walked over to the desk and looked at the blueprints, removing her cloak to reveal herself as Maisie went wide-eyed with a weak little gasp.

Karla hummed a little tune to herself as she went to a cupboard and pulled out a mug and some teabags, putting the red kettle under the sink and filling it with water. Maisie remained in the shadows to try and make sure she wasn't seen, closing her eyes and tensing as Karla turned to her general direction.

 _ **Bzz-Bzz-Bzz!**_

Karla looked back to her desk, sighing as she picked the phone off of it and put it to her ear as she listened to the voice on the other side and went over to the fridge.

"Ugh? What more is there to understand, Adaku?!" she snapped as she opened the fridge door, going wide-eyed as she noticed that the Twix was gone and the carton of orange juice was half-empty. "Hmm..."

 _"Um... Miss Sealy?"_

"Ugh... look, the plan's simple enough." Karla said down the phone as she slammed the fridge shut, prompting Maisie to lean closer to the end of the table so she could hear her. "If we're going to take care of the Gradys and their little freakshow zoohouse, we'll have to _divide and conquer_."

 _"Oh no... no-no-no-no-no..."_ Maisie whispered under her breath, suddenly looking down to the floor and noticing her left nails had dug into the wooden floorboard. _"Shit!"_

"I go into their home and take the girl. That'll distract them long enough for you to take the rest of them."

 _"Right. We will take them before first light, Miss Sealy. The Gradys won't know what..."_

 ** _ZZZZZZIP!_** Karla suddenly turned on the spot and whipped out her crossbow, firing the arrow directly at the table. The arrow hit the table top and caused it to flip onto it's side, causing Karla to go wide-eyed when she saw nothing and no one hiding underneath. "Hmm, interesting..."

 _"Miss Sealy?"_ Kingston's voice said, sounding slightly concerned. _"Miss Sealy, what is it?"_

"Hush." Karla suddenly said, kneeling down to observe the thin claw marks that had been made in the floor under where the table used to stand. "There's one here..."

 _"One what? You mean... you mean a dinosaur, Ma'am?"_

"Yes, there is. I'll call you back." Karla casually hung up the phone and put it into her pocket, putting the crossbow down on the floor and putting her fingers over the claw marks.

 ** _CLANG!_** Her ears pricked up at the sudden sound of the metal door being slammed shut, looking up to see the pantry door at the end of the room. Not a particularly good spot to hide since it was the only door at that end of the building.

 _"Hide and seek, eh?"_ Karla snarked as she saw the large, circular valve in the centre of the door turning so it locked. A part of her was pondering what kind of dinosaur it could have been if it were clever enough to lock a door, but she wasn't someone who'd say no to a good game. _"Alright, I'll play..."_

* * *

Maisie was trying to put a plan together as she looked around the pantry hallway she was in, her improved eyesight allowing her to see despite the pitch black darkness. It was lined with reptile skins of all kinds, hung from hooks like tapestries. At the end of the dark hallway, Maisie saw the two largest skins, one red and one green, quickly scurrying behind them as she heard Karla's voice.

 _"Ten..."_

 _ **Cccccccccccccccccccrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkk...**_ Maisie's head tensed up and she went dead silent, listening to the sound of the door being slowly pulled open as Karla came into the dark hallway of skins. _"...nine..."_

The opened door cast a long rectangle of golden light from the main room into the hallway, prompting Maisie to quickly latch herself onto one of the two skins she was hiding behind, keeping her feet off the ground so that they wouldn't be spotted in the light. _"...eight..."_

 ** _Snikt..._** Maisie could hear the sharp, metallic sound of the knife that Karla pulled from the pouch on her thigh holster, which made a similar sound as Karla playfully tossed it repeatedly from hand to hand. _"...seven..."_

Maisie could hear the voice and footsteps growing subtly louder as Karla came progressively closer to her hiding spot, with the squeaking made on the creaky floor board becoming louder and longer with each step Karla took. _"...six..."_

The creaking of the floorboards indicated that Karla was diverging from a straight path, slowly moving toward the skins hung on the right side of the hallway. _"...five..."_

With the most subtle creaking sound, Maisie could tell that Karla was now heading to the skins on the left side, nonchalantly checking behind each one to see if someone was hiding behind them. _"...four..."_

It quickly occurred to Maisie that Karla was bound to reach the end of this hallway and find her hiding spot. So she couldn't stay here for much longer. _"...three..."_

Lightly placing her feet on the floor so they didn't touch the creaky floorboard, Maisie let go of the skin she had been hanging on to, still standing directly behind it as the light showed Karla's silhouette growing in size. _"...two..."_

Maisie quickly turned around to run, gasping as she hit the brick wall that was right behind her. It was a dead end.

 _"...one."_

There was nowhere else for her to run. She was trapped.

 _"Ready or not..."_ Karla smirked as she reached the two skins at the end of the room, lifting her arm up while holding the knife upside down. _"Here... I... **COME!** "_

 ** _RRRRRRRRIIIIPPP!_** the knife sliced the red-scaled skin right down the middle, prompting Maisie to dart out from the green-scaled skin she was hiding behind and run panting to the door.

Karla went wide-eyed as she hit her back against the wall, immediately noticing the humanoid shape of the scaled figure. This was her target. The dino-girl. She barely had a second to process this before she gave chase, sending her knife spinning into the centre of the door as Maisie slammed it shut behind her.

 ** _"Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit!"_** Maisie quickly muttered to her terrified self as she twisted the valve on the door anti-clockwise, locking it with Karla inside as she quickly ran out of the bungalow and into the rain and the woods.

 **"Ugh! Come on! GAH!"** Karla kicked the door straight off it's hinges in her ravenous fury, grabbing her crossbow from under the flipped table and loading it as she ran out of the bungalow.

She rushed out of the bungalow and ran to the edge of the driveway, holding her crossbow in an aiming position and rotating herself around. The rain fell heavier, making the dimly moonlit forest even harder to see. Her prey had escaped, and was nowhere in sight.

 **"Come on... come on... argh! Shit!"** Karla threw the crossbow on the ground and stamped on the spot like a spoiled child. **"RRRAAAGGGHHH!"**

Meanwhile, Maisie panted heavily, running as fast as her two feet could carry through the woods while trying to avoid hitting the barrage of rocks and trees in her way. **_"Ow! Whoa! AAAH!"_**

The rock she had tripped on seemed to have come out of nowhere, as did the muddy banking and the small ditch that she landed in because of it. Maisie groaned as she sat up, rubbing the shin that the rock had hit as the rain continued to fall around her.

 **"Run all you want, dino-girl!"** Maisie crouched down into the bushes as she heard Karla's voice shrieking from the direction of the hunting lodge. **"I'll find you! If it takes me to the end of the Earth and back again, I will find you! I swear it!"**

 _ **"Shit... oh, shit..."**_ Maisie quickly scrambled ahead through the woods, with some form of natural impulse taking over that made her run on both her hands and her legs to pick up speed.

She hadn't much sense of direction, but all that mattered was that she had to keep moving forward to get as far away from that hunting lodge as possible. And as far as she knew, there was only one place where she could go now.


	8. Iwin It Now

**Grady Family Cabin**

It was almost dawn when Maisie got back. The rain had cleared up and the sun had let a blood red seep into the gradient of the previously pitch black sky. She had to pass the cabin on the way to the Reserve, and she resorted to hiding in the bushes so that no one inside the house could spot her.

When she had passed the house she wasn't able to see Owen, presumably since he was somewhere upstairs, but she saw Claire in the kitchen on the phone. She was calling someone, most likely the police, or Franklin, or perhaps Dr Malcolm again. As excruciating as it was to see Claire so worried, that wasn't what Maisie needed to focus on right now. The Reserve, and the dinosaurs in it, were her top priority.

* * *

 **DPG Hammond And Lockwood Memorial Reserve**

As soon as the Reserve came into her view, so did the sight of three figures standing in front of the fence, and she had to disappear behind a nearby bush to make sure she wasn't noticed. It was just close enough to get a good view of the three individuals.

The two at the back wore simple black hoods and balaclavas over their faces with eye holes, almost looking like ninjas, but it was the one up front that really caught Maisie's attention.

He wore a unique mask, sculpted messily to resemble a _Velociraptor_ , and his build was clearly that of an average male, so he couldn't be the taller, more slender Karla.

He pulled a small flare out of his pocket and lit it to get all the dinosaurs' attention. They all groaned and called out to him as he slowly walked over to the lock on the fence and unbuckled it.

Maisie watched silently as the figure took a few steps back, letting the dinosaurs follow the light of the flare to the very edge of both the carnivore and herbivore fences. He made a hand signal to his two companions, gently whispering. _"Now..."_

They both nodded, tightening the gas masks on their faces as they each pulled out a long hose pipe and pointed them at either fenced area. Maisie went wide-eyed as she saw this, whispering _"oh no..."_ under her breath.

 _ **Hissss...**_ was the sound the invisible toxin made through the hose pipes as they fed it through the chains of the fence and into the area the beasts were standing. The dinosaurs unknowingly began to breathe it in, each of them roaring and groaning as they fell back unconscious on the floor while the masked man opened the fence fully.

 ** _"Hey! Stop!"_** Maisie called out, prompting the masked man to jolt at the sight of her as she leapt at him like a predator pouncing on her prey. He was taken off his feet and landed hard on his back with her on top of him, his mask nearly falling off as he reached for his belt.

 _ **Zzzip!**_ The tranquiliser dart flew out of the pistol as he fired it, going right into Maisie's neck as she wheezed out loud in shock. Her eyes rolled to the side and drooped shut as her body flopped back lifelessly, hitting the floor like a big, scaly rock.

Sighing in relief, the masked man picked himself back up and pulled out a set of handcuffs, taking them over to where Maisie was now lying unconscious.

"No! Doc, wait!" the man paused when one of the others grabbed his arm, turning to face her as she took off her hood and mask. "That's Maisie... the Lockwood girl..."

 _"And?"_

Zia groaned, before saying "Owen and Claire are worried sick about her... okay, we... we can't just..."

 _"She's seen us!"_ the masked man snapped back. _"She's seen enough of us to know what we're doing here... besides, she's safer with these dinosaurs than she is with the Grady's... for now."_

Zia nodded in defeat, before the third hooded figure, a man, said "so... what are we gonna do then?"

The masked man took a moment to think, before saying _"we'll take her. When the time's right, we'll tell the other two where to go and find us... Cruthers."_

"Yeah..." the other man said as he and Zia both looked up.

 _"Call the others, tell them to get the transports ready. We've hit the motherload here..."_

* * *

 **Hunting Lodge - One Hour Later**

"Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait! _Gone?_ Ugh, what do you mean gone, Adaku? All of them?!" Karla had stood up from the table where she was eating breakfast with her fist clenched as Kingston reported the unfortunate news.

The force of her movement had caused the plate with bacon, toast and two boiled eggs to fly onto the floor and shatter, but no one else in the room dared to pick it up in case it provoked an angrier response from Karla.

 _"Y-yes, ma'am... the reserve is completely barren, not a dinosaur in sight..."_

"That doesn't even make any... damn... the girl's not come back yet either, has she?"

 _"Not since you saw her in the cabin last night. They're still waiting for her to show."_

"Shit... shit-shit-shit **SHIT!** Ugh!"

Karla took out her frustration on the table, the force of her kick splitting the top of it in two as all the objects on it tumbled down to the floor with a violent clatter. Kingston took a few steps back, clearing her throat nervously as Karla took a deep breath to calm down and turned back around to face her.

"Well if she's not reported back to them, they couldn't have known that we were coming... someone else must have got to the dinosaurs before us..."

"Yes, ma'am... it was the _iwin_."


	9. I Grant You Sanctuary

_**"Ugh... ow, god, where... where am I?! I... ugh... shit..."**_

She'd been caught, they got her. Karla? Someone worse? Who knew? Why did it matter? All that mattered was that she had been caught, and the dinosaurs had been caught as well.

Maisie shot to her feet from the bed she was lying in, frantically looking for some avenue to freedom from the compact, simple, four-walled room. She tugged hard on the handle of the large door at the front of the room, but it was bolted shut and it was made of an old, rusty metal too thick for her claws to cut through. She wasn't going out this way.

 _ **"Window... window!"**_

Just what she needed. It was a blue circle at the back end of the room, the handle was a simple twisting valve and it's diameter looked just wide enough for her slim little body to crawl out of.

 _ **"Yes!"**_ she darted over to the window and put her hand on the valve, twisting it upwards to unlock the window and pulling it open. She was immediately taken aback by the bright sunlight, the cold air and the salty, wet smell that had suddenly assaulted her senses as she poked her head out of it.

The blow of the wind and the scent of the sea seemed to indicate that she was on a boat, and once her eyes had adjusted to the light she was able to see that she was actually on a large, metal cargo ship. The blue sea was surrounding it and reached far into the distance with no islands or landmarks in sight, so Maisie quickly realised that it was a good long distance from the Hammond and Lockwood Reserve. She had to figure out where this thing was heading and get off before it got there.

With her fingers latched onto the window, she clambered the rest of her body through and held onto it's circumference so she could hang off of it. The room she was in was quite a high distance from the nearest deck floor and if she were to fall down it would almost definitely make a noise that would alert her captors to her escape, so she had to think about this.

After about a minute of arguing with herself, and extending the claw-like nails from her levft hand, Maisie removed it from the window and slowly dug it's nails into the metal wall that she was currently hanging off. Once she knew their grip on it was firm and tight enough, she removed her other hand from the window and dug these nails into the wall at a lower position than her right.

 ** _"Hmm... easy enough..."_**

With her left hand's grip continuing to pin her to the wall she then removed her right hand from it's spot and used it to lower the rest of herself down. She repeated this process for a good few minutes until she was only about five feet above the floor, at which point she felt it safe enough to remove both her hands and let herself drop down the rest of the way.

She made a three-point landing on the floor, with her right kneecap, left foot and right palm breaking her fall. There was an old amplifier attached to the wall in front of her, and the red light on the bottom of it wasn't on to indicate that it wasn't switched on either. With no one else visible in this area, Maisie sat back against the wall with a sigh.

The dinosaurs they took had to be locked away somewhere on this ship, so she had to find them and find someway to get them all out. But she was alone, and she couldn't fight any of the crew members herself, especially since they most likely had tranquillisers like that mysterious hooded figure who shot her before. Escaping was going to be a lot more difficult that preferred, especially with the dinosaurs.

After a few moments of thinking about this, she was just about to develop an idea when... **SSSSSCCCCCHHHAAACCCHHH!**

 _ **"Agh!"**_ shrieked as the amplifier pierced her ears with a sharp, painful screech, as if the microphone on the other end of it was just being plugged in.

 **"Everybody, we have a red alert!"** the female voice boomed out of the amplifier. **"The Lockwood girl broke out of the room and she's somewhere on the ship. Somebody get out there and find her before she jumps off and tries to swim for it. Just bring her to the main quarter, don't harm her, and don't scare her."**

 ** _"Shit... shit-shit-shit!"_** Maisie's eyes darted around, ravenously searching for some kind of escape route. She couldn't swim for a mainland from the middle of the ocean and she definitely wasn't leaving the dinosuars here, and the men on the ship knew she'd escaped and were most likely on the hunt for her now. She was trapped.

"Maisie!" a familiar, instantly recognisable voice said this from behind her, causing Maisie to freeze on the spot with wide eyes as she turned to face the person that it belonged to. She landed in a three-point position, otherwise known as a "superhero landing" with her right kneecap, her left foot and her right palm breaking her fall.

 _ **"Z... Zia... what... what are you... what are you doing here?!"**_

"Maze... alright, just calm down..." Zia had one hand up and open while her other hand hovered over the holster on her belt. "Easy, kid... just come with me and I'll explain everything..."

 ** _"You're... you're one of them... how could... you... you bitch!"_ **Maise felt a strong, animalistic rage overcome herself as she extended the claws on her fingers and bared her fang-like canines with a snarl. _**"I'll rip you apart!"**_

Zia immediately pulled the tranquiliser gun from her holster and held it up as Maisie darted towards her, taking the safety off and aiming it right forward. _"Maisie, stop!"_

 ** _Zzzip!_** Maisie suddenly went wide-eyed and wheezed out in shock as a different tranquiliser dart flew into the back of her neck, taking a few seconds before she fell face-first onto the floor and passed out.

* * *

 **One Hour Later**

 _"Right... the cages are opened. The Doc's moving them all out."_

"Good. So... how much longer is Maze gonna be out for?"

 _"I hit her with an extra dose... so she'll sleep it off... or she'll wake up and walk it off..."_

Maisie heard the two voices, the second of which belonged to Zia, from the other side of the door as she slowly woke up. She was in a different room this time, one that didn't have any windows and just a simple, unlocked wooden door. The rage that had been festering within her seemed to have burned out, and she was struggling to even keep her eyes open. She wasn't nearly old enough to have been near narcotics, but this was how she always imagined being high would feel like.

Forcing herself to her feet, Maisie clambered over to the door and twisted the knob to open it. Zia and the bearded, bespectacled man she was talking to both jolted back as they saw her, the man trying not to go for his tranquilliser gun again. It was clear by this that he was the one that had shot her earlier, but he seemed to have too different a build from the first masked man that had shot her at the reserve.

 _"Uh... hey kid... what's up?"_ he said worriedly, his voice being surprisingly nervous and high-pitched. Maisie didn't answer him directly, still feeling queasy while also trying to figure out if she'd seen this man before. Zia cleared her throat a bit, saying "um, Maze, this is Lowery Cruthers... he used to work for Claire at..."

 _ **"At Jurassic World... I know..."**_ she groaned out a bit, blinking a few times to get her vision back on track.

"Well, actually... I didn't technically work for her, we were uh... colleagues, I guess... but uh, anyway... cool to meet you, kid... Lockwood's uh... dinosaur girl...?"

Maisie didn't acknowledge that remark and tried to walk away again, only to collapse back in exhaustion on the chair behind her. Zia knew that the serum hadn't worked it's way out of the girl's system yet, so she put her belt and holster on the floor edged herself a little closer to Maisie.

"Maze, I know this looks bad, but believe it or not, we're not working for Karla Sealy, if that's what you're thinking..."

 _ **"Oh why would I ever think that...?"**_ Maisie lay her head back on the chair and looked up at the ceiling. **_"All you did was steal the dinosaurs from our reserve and kidnap me when I tried to stop you..."_**

"And if we hadn't done that, the _HLF_ would have gotten to you guys first..."

Zia and Cruthers both looked up as a woman about Cruthers' age with brown hair that went to her shoulders opened the door and came into the room. "Guys... they're all on their way out... you coming?"

 _"Yep. Thanks Viv..."_ Cruthers said with a nod as he and Vivian went out the door, prompting Zia to grin as she looked to Maisie.

"Alright, kid... I think you need to see something..."

* * *

Maisie slowly followed the three of them outside of the captain's quarters down the plank onto the dock, looking down to the platform below where the large herd of herbivorous dinosaurs from the reserve were walking onto the island.

"We've been rescuing dinosaurs from all over the mainland, Maze..." Zia explained, before Vivian added "keeping them hidden from Sealy and her hunters, we've been bringing them all here..."

Maisie's eye twitched a bit as they stopped at the bottom of the plank and saw the old, battered sign in front of them, having heard a couple of interesting stories about this place.

 _Isla Sorna_.

 _ **"Wait, so how many dinosaurs do you ha... oh..."**_ Maisie froze and swallowed her words as she looked up past the sign, seeing the massive field of green pasture that went on for miles and miles. She took a few steps forward and her heart started beating at a much more rapid pace than before.

The fences and buildings of the factory that used to operate here were nothing more than rubble now with a sizeable watering hole in the centre of the field, and most if not every square inch of the land was populated with dinosaurs, of all size, species and feeding behaviours. The dinosaurs from the reserve immediately sped outwards in all directions on their new safe-haven, and Maisie was so preoccupied with observing this from afar that she didn't notice the jeep that was driving towards the sign where she and the others were standing.

The jeep skidded to a halt in front of the group, and Maisie finally looked over to see the two people that stepped out while the driver stayed. One was a black man that seemed to be in his mid sixties, with a moustache, glasses and a folded right sleeve where an arm should have been. The other was a blonde woman in her fifties, who wore sunglasses and a sun-hat that were surprisingly casual for what they were all doing here.

 _ **"Whoa!"**_ the one-armed man suddenly pulled the woman out of the way as the _Parasaurolophus_ came thundering past them and everyone ducked as it's tail knocked the sign over. **_"Motherfu... shit, man!"_**

"Hoo... thanks a lot, John..." the woman straightened back up again as everyone looked at her. "So... how many'd you guys save?"

 _"All of 'em, Doc."_ Cruthers seemed smug and proud of himself as he said this, prompting Zia to roll her eyes in both amusement and annoyance. _"All two hundred and twenty three... well, twenty four if you count the, uh... you know..."_

"Oh, right!" the woman turned around excitedly to see Maisie standing there, kneeling down a bit as she reached a hand forwards to cup the girl's face. Maisie tensed for just a split-second, but quickly softened up as the woman removed her sunglasses and her hat to let Maisie finally see who she was.

 _ **"Wait, you... you're Ellie S..."**_

"Dr. Ellie Sattler... yeah honey, that's right... and you're Maisie, the dino-girl... Lockwood's little miracle..."

 ** _"Miracle, me?_** ** _Wow... hoo... god, it's just..."_** Maisie was starting to hyperventilate a bit as she still struggled to process what was happening right now and tried not to cry with excitement. " _ **I hope this isn't awkward, but I'm actually a huuuuuge, huge fan of yours, Dr. Sattler, no joke..."**_

"Hmm, ha ha... yeah, Zia's told us about you..." Ellie was clearly still mesmerised by Maisie's face and all the details of her scales and spikes. "God... you really are something, kid..."

 ** _"Wow. Wow-wow-wow, I... wait."_** Maisie tensed again. **_"Wait-wait-wait, so... if you're Ellie Sattler, and... and you're... you're all you lot, then who... who was the creepy one in that mask who shot me at the reserve?!"_**

Maisie suddenly froze on the spot as she heard the footsteps behind her, being stiff as a statue as she turned to see that masked man standing there silently. **_"Um... right... uh..."_**

The figure straightened up a bit, holding a hand out as a silent indicator for her to remain calm as everyone else grinned. Maisie exhaled a little, only to go very wide-eyed with a high-pitched gasp as he removed his hooded mask and revealed his aged yet familiar face to her.

 _"I'm Dr. Alan Grant... welcome to Jurassic Sanctuary, Miss Lockwood..."_


	10. Heated Discussion

**Grady Family Cabin**

It was past midnight when Claire heard the creaking downstairs. Ever since they'd found the Reserve completely ransacked that morning and Maisie went missing the night before she'd not slept a wink. Franklin had come over earlier and he and Owen had eventually dozed off, so Claire had put them both in the main bed, but she'd remained squatted down on the top of the staircase with a baseball bat in one hand. The ceiling light above her was on, but the ones downstairs were all off.

She'd very nearly nodded off herself before she'd heard the creaking. When she heard it her head instantly pricked up and her grip tightened on the handle of the bat, slowly getting to her feet. She was barefoot and tread lightly on each step, trying to make sure none of them creaked too loudly when she went down them. Claire reached the bottom of the steps and froze as she saw the white light of the fridge being cast onto the living room floor.

"Huh..." Claire put the baseball bat onto the floor as she saw the silhouette of the figure that was kneeling in front of the opened fridge. She was at first overcome with relief and joy, wiping her eye with the back of her hand "I gotta say, sweetheart... I had a feeling you'd be coming back to us..."

The figure silently froze when Claire spoke, and she could tell that the head behind the fridge door had turned to face the direction of her voice.

Claire was so nearly tempted to go over and give what seemed to be Maisie a hug, but she decided against it. She figured it wouldn't be appropriate yet considering why Maisie had run off. "Listen honey, I... I'm sorry... about everything... alright, it... it wasn't your fault, but we can work through this... and I... I don't know if you saw the Reserve, but... but we'll work through that too..."

The figure remained silent, but Claire could hear them grabbing something off the top shelf of the fridge. "Ugh... Maisie, I know you can hear me."

 _"Hmm... Maisie...?"_ the female voice spoke as the shadowed figure stood up and closed the fridge door, with Claire immediately noticing that the figure's shadow was too tall and humanoid to be her adopted daughter. _"How sweet. You know, on the way here I was actually wondering if you'd given it a name."_

Claire stood still for a moment, slowly making her way over to the lamp next to the couch as the shadowed figure grabbed the magnet bottle opener off of the fridge and used it to pop off the lid on the beer she was holding.

 _"Oh, I hope you don't mind if I... help myself? You see, I've had a long and... awfully stressful couple of days and we all need refreshment every now and then. Guinness would have been preferable, obviously, but it seems, based on the contents of that fridge, that you're apparently more of a Heineken family..."_

As soon as she switched on the light Claire straightened up with the bat out and ready to use again. Karla wasn't visibly threatened by this at all, merely scoffing as she said _"relax darling, I'm not here to start a fight... and if you want one, at least let me finish my drink first..."_

Claire didn't budge from her battle-ready stance, taking a few steps back as Karla casually walked around the back of the couch and slouched down onto it with her booted feet up on the coffee table. Her crossbow hung loosely from her belt and in one hand she was playfully twirling a small arrow, clearly trying to send a message.

 _"So... Claire Dearing Grady... I reckon that it's about time we met in person, don't you?"_

"How did you get in here?"

 _"That's for me to know and for you to not bother asking about... hmm... I must say, you do have a lovely little home here... not quite what I'm used to..."_ Karla chuckled a bit as she took a swig of the bottle. She looked at Claire again, rolling her eyes as she said _"oh don't be so uptight... come on, sit down..."_

 ** _ZZZZZZIP!_** She nonchalantly pulled the trigger on the crossbow, letting it fire a dart that flew straight into the couch that faced the one where she sat. Claire looked at her for with a brow raised a few seconds, before Karla pointed her finger at the couch she had just shot, apparently motioning her to sit down there.

 _"Relax, darling. If I were here to kill you I'd have come prepared."_

Claire was still intense, but she obliged to the request, sitting upright on the couch with the a leg on either side of the arrow and the bat positioned a few inches away on the floor. She remained straightforward in tone as she slowly spoke. "Karla... why are you here?"

 _"Alright, I see no need to treat you like an imbecile so I'll just set things straight."_ Karla lurched forwards with a grin on her face. _"I'm here for your little... deformity... you know... the girl."_

Claire went wide-eyed as Karla said this, clenching her fist a little as her eyes darted towards the baseball bat. Karla knew what she was thinking, so she kept her hand hovered over the handle of the crossbow on her belt just to send a subtle yet clear warning.

 _"Tempting as it is, though, I'm under strict contract to not harm her in any way, shape or form. See, I'm working for an old friend of yours that would like to take a look at her. The usual stuff. Experimentation, classifying species, and all that jazz. He's promised me a very reasonable pay, so out of all my clients this is one that I simply can't let down in this situation."_

If she had not been frozen in shock, the internal rage brought on by this threat was nearly prompting Claire to reach for the baseball bat again, but she remained still as Karla leaned closer towards her so that their faces were just over six inches apart.

 _"You're going to give her to me, Claire."_ her voice was almost like a whisper, or the hiss of a serpent. _"And the rest of them too."_

"Never." Claire spat back in the most determined tone of voice she could muster. Karla was not deterred, almost pouting in deadpan annoyance as she pulled away from Claire and pinched the bridge of her nose.

 _"Why am I not surprised? Pft... well, I suppose if you don't intend to be patronised I'll take the liberty of giving you some much-needed constructive criticism."_

She lazily pulled herself off of the couch as she took the crossbow off her belt, playfully twirling it in one hand and holding her bottle in the other as she walked around the back of the couch. _"This little... um, what did you call it now... um... reserve? Yes? Right, this reserve, this... this dinosaur sanctuary thing, your... your Jurassic Utopia, it's... simply put, it's just not going to work... it never will."_

Karla rolled her eyes again as she looked up on the wall, taking a silent moment to realise who the men in the painting actually were. The creators of all of this, Hammond and Lockwood. She scoffed in a tone that almost seemed to imply disgust, before turning back to Claire as she took another swig of her drink.

 _"I mean... you want our children to grow up in a world where these beasts still live amongst us, that's what you said, isn't it? But as what exactly, I can't really put my finger on. Pets? Equals? Ha ha... you want to give them the vote too?"_

"They're living animals. And they deserve to live free, away from people like you and Mills."

 _"Oh, live free? Hmm... is that was that big fenced reserve outside is for? You self-righteous tree-huggers can question my methods all you want, but I'm a dinosaur hunter, and I know I am, I'm nothing if not honest. You lot on the other hand, well... there's a very thin line between being a so-called protector and being a captor. Which end of the spectrum do you reckon you fell under before another one of your dinosaur apologists stole them all from you, Claire?"_

Claire went wide-eyed as Karla said this, prompting the latter to raise an amused eyebrow. _"Oh... oh I see, you didn't know... well, if you thought I was the one that took them all, I'm afraid you were sadly mistaken. See, all I bother to take from my hunts are the heads and a few other things I can stuff... nice for memorabilia, sentimental value, all that shit."_

Karla leaned into the back of the couch with her arms crossed. _"Ever since those two old fools decided to play god with their science kits, history has proven to us time and time again that dinosaurs cannot coexist with us. The meteor hit them for a reason, Claire, and the natural order must be restored to what it once was."_

"Oh yeah? And who's gonna do that? You?" Claire noticed Karla's attempt at a sincere face drop into an almost lifeless plain face, clearly implying that Claire had touched a nerve. "You can lie to yourself and all your little followers, Sealy, but I know what you are, and why you're doing this."

 _"Hmm... do you now?"_

"Course I do. Your father loved these dinosaurs, and all animals." Claire chuckled almost mockingly. "Much more than he ever loved you."

Karla's grip was clearly tightening on the bottle she was holding and her eye was twitching, so Claire was clearly getting through to her. "No one ever gave a shit what you did til you brought back that lion's head, so you kept killing, and killing... the dinosaurs are just a bigger and tougher target. You say you wanna save humanity, but I know you just wanna be remembered as a new meteor. The one who hunted dinosaurs back to extinction."

It took a few seconds for Karla to respond to this, but eventually her smug grin came back as she stood up again. _"What can I say? There's worse ways to be remembered... the woman who saved mankind from it's own mistakes has quite the ring to it in the history books... much better than the fools that tried to convince humanity that dinosaurs were just misunderstood and caused countless deaths trying to prove it... and the girl, well... that's a whole other problem in itself, isn't it?"_

Claire didn't respond to this, so Karla now knew that she was now touching a nerve. _"Who'd have thought we'd see such a perversion of nature so utterly disgusting that even Hammond would want nothing to do with it... and that was before she grew the scales... and what if she's... compatible... with humans, eh? What if she decides to breed with one of ours... imagine the freakish offspring, and imagine them breeding... and the vicious cycle continuing... and on and on and on, until... no... no, if I don't nip this in the bud, you and that girl would be the end of human civilisation as we know it..."_

Claire was starting to pant a bit as she clenched her fingers onto the armrest of the couch, having an instinct that Karla's speech was coming to an end.

 _"And I'm afraid that's something..."_ Karla's mouth curled into a small smirk as she loaded the arrow into her crossbow, obviously intending to use it now. _"...that I cannot allow."_

 ** _CLICK-CLICK!_**

Karla's eyes widened as she heard the sound of the gun being cocked and loaded on her right. She and Claire both turned their heads slowly towards the bottom of the stairs, where Owen was standing with his old hunting rifle aimed straight at Karla. Franklin was behind the former Marine holding a golf club like a ninja with a katana sword.

"Are we interrupting?" Owen snarked with a brow raised, Karla merely scoffing as she lowered the crossbow.

 _"Not at all... in fact, things were just starting to get a bit boring."_ she looked at Claire as the latter got to her feet and grabbed the bat again.

"Franklin, call the police..." Claire looked to the boy, and he nodded as he dropped the golf club and walked around the back of the couch to grab the main house phone, muttering a few frustrated curse words to himself as he fumbled it around in his hands.

 _"Police, eh?"_ Karla remained casual and care-free as she looked at each of them. _"What use do you think they'll be?"_

"The sheer nerve of you disgusts me..." Claire pointed the bat directly at Karla's unamused face as she said this. "You kill because it's fun, you want to wipe out the dinosuars to feed your own bloated, spoiled brat of an ego, and now you come into our home and threaten our daughter's life..."

Karla scoffed and put a hand on her hip as she finished the rest of her drink. _"You know Claire, calling what I'm doing a threat is undermining it a bit. Because it implies that I don't intend to carry it out."_

"You'll _never_ have Maisie!" Owen spat in an almost venomous tone which took Karla a little off guard, but she quickly regained her composure and stood up straight again as she turned to Clair, who now had a confident grin on her face as she continued pointing the bat.

"We _have_ , we _can_ and we _will_ protect our child, and all of our dinosaurs, against far worse than the likes of you, Karla Sealy..." she said proudly and defiantly. "You and your hunters are nothing more than a sign of the times. Out of date. Dying out. _Endangered_."

Karla's eye twitched a little at this, and her grip loosened a little on the crossbow as she let it flop back down from her belt. A little smirk grew on her face as she looked at the arrow she'd fired into the couch, which Franklin was now standing behind as he dialled the number into the phone.

 _"Well, I can't say that I don't admire your determination, Claire..."_ Karla put the bottle down and fished her phone out of her pocket, Owen going wide-eyed as he saw the button on her screen. _"But I'm afraid you're mistaken... you've never seen anything worse than me..."_

 **"Claire, look out!"** Owen darted over to tackle Claire aside, causing them both to fall behind the coffee table as Karla pressed the button. **"FRANKLIN!"**

 _ **BOOM!**_

The explosion erupted from the couch into a bright firework of sparks and flames that shot out in all directions, with Franklin letting out an ear-piercing shriek as it completely consumed him. Karla took a few steps back, proud of her work as the sparks stuck to the plaster ceiling and onto the wooden floor and caused miniature fires to start from them as they grew and spread at a rapid pace.

Owen held his shirt over his mouth and his hand over Claire's to keep the smoke out as they clambered to their feet, huddling close together as chunks and beams from the ceiling started to fall around them. Possible avenues of escape were starting to get closed up and blocked by the flames as the entire house started to fall apart.

Karla went around the back of the exploded couch, which was still belting out thick black smoke as she grabbed the golf club Franklin had been holding and swung it into one of the glass windows with a swift, sharp _**SMASH!**_

Using the butt of the club to clear away any of the remaining shards of the frame, she dialled her phone and spoke into it. _"All wrapped up here, Adaku... finish up over there, will you dear?"_

The smoke of the couch cleared away just long enough to show the Gradys what was behind it as they both went wide-eyed. Claire forced a muffled scream through Owen's hand at the sight of the charred, lifeless skeleton that was now standing where Franklin once was, which crumbled to dust a few seconds later as a beam fell on top of it.

 ** _"You can't keep them from me, Claire."_** Karla's voice echoed through the ravenous flames as they both turned to face it, her silhouette almost taking the form of a towering, hellish demon as she walked backwards and disappeared into the fire. **_"If you stand in my way I will not hesitate to kill every single one of you, and the girl. It's your choice."_**

Claire was frozen for a good few seconds after Karla disappeared, before Owen grabbed his wife and pulled her to her feet. **"Claire come on, we gotta get outta here!"**

They both continued covering their faces as Owen wrapped Claire in his arms to protect her from the flames. Owen kicked the front door down and they ran out of the doorway just before the beams falling from the porch were able to block it completely, narrowly escaping the cabin as the flames now spread to the outside as well.

Franklin was dead, Karla was gone and all that remained to show she was there was a collapsing inferno once known as the Grady Cabin, with the husband and wife sitting exhausted on the grass watching it blaze violently in the middle of the night.

"Claire... what do we do?" Owen asked.

 _"I... I don't know..."_


	11. Wu-Ing The Geeks

**Isla Sorna**

 _"Nedry did a number on the whole system, and his ass was grass by this point so we couldn't count on him to get it back up... and Hammond, crazy ass that he was, said the only way to get the system back on was to shut the whole damn thing down. Course he sent **my** ass down to pull the goddamn switch, right before I got my arm ripped off by those **mother**..."_

"Language, John."

Maisie and Arnold both rolled their eyes as Sattler interrupted the story that Arnold was telling, the latter grumbling under his breath as he went over to check on something with another staff member. With the story just about finished anyway, Maisie looked to the field ahead, where she could see Zia and Lowery tending to one of the pregnant _Triceratops_.

 ** _"So where do these other dinosaurs come from?"_** Maisie asked as Ellie sat next to her to watch Zia and Lowery working. **_"Besides the Reserve?"_**

"All over the place. Not even a joke..." Ellie chuckled. "We mostly just ticked off names from the auction and anywhere the _HLF_ were camped out."

Maisie nodded at this, waiting until the other two walked over to them before she said **_"what about... the um... the T-Rex? Is she here?"_**

"She's uh... hmm..." Ellie looked to the floor for a moment as she had to think. "I'm actually not sure about that, uh... hey Cruthers, where actually is the T-Rex today?"

 _"Well last I checked, Rexy was napping."_

 _ **"Rexy? You gave her a name?"**_

 _"Yep. Most of them have names."_ Zia nodded. _"Well... most of the ones from Nublar did anyway..."_

 ** _"Huh... well... there's just one thing I don't understand..."_** Zia and Lowery turned to face Maisie as she said this. _**"Why didn't you tell Owen or Claire about this? Why'd you need to ransack the Reserve?"**_

They all seemed to have been taken back a bit by this, but Ellie was the first to break the incredibly awkward silence that had come in because of it.

"The thing is, Maisie... Hammond once said that the dinosaurs require our absence to survive, not our protection. They don't need fences, tourists, or anyone else drawing attention to them. They need to be free, wild, somewhere people like Karla Sealy won't find them. Your parents tried their best, Maisie, but the truth is... they were doing more damage than good."

Maisie nodded silently with her lips pursed, seemingly taking in what Ellie was saying but also trying to hold back a more emotional reaction. **_"How long until someone finds out about this place, though? You're just gathering them all up in one herd just like they did..."_**

Zia grinned at this, motioning her head towards the tent that was set up about a hundred yards away. _"Come on Maze. It's time you see what we're really doing here."_

* * *

 **Debriefing Tent**

 _"Isla Sorna's always been more of a placeholder for this operation."_ Grant explained once everyone was sat down in the tent, placed in front of a wide, circular desk. _"We knew from the start that Sealy and her hunters tracking us here would be a matter of when, rather than if, so we were sort of pushing ourselves into a corner here. But then we found one hell of a miracle..."_

Maisie's face was lit up by this, only to drop in disappointment when Grant finally pulled the cover off the item on the desk.

"We found this model in Lockwood Manor after the Indoraptor incident." Grant said as he pointed to it. _"It's a new island. Uninhabited by humans. Protected by natural barriers, fully self-sustaining. It's a perfect habitat to relocate them."_

 _ **"Ugh..."**_ Maisie sighed, prompting Zia's eyes to widen a little as she asked "Maze, what's wrong?"

 ** _"You're wasting your time. Mills made up this island to get Claire's help. It was all a lie."_**

"We thought so too at first... but then we checked the maps." Ellie confidently strode up to the table and unfurled the large diagram that Arnold passed to her, showing a bird's eye view of Isla Sorna. She pressed her pencil to the middle of the picture and moved it to the left, tracing a line that stopped just at a shape of land on the much larger shape that looked just like the model.

"The island's real, Maisie. It's 250 miles West from here. It's large, defensible, and virtually unreachable without the use of military submarines. It's just what the dinosaurs need."

 ** _"A new home..."_** Maisie let a little grin cross her face, indicating that a little light of hope was getting back to her again. _**"Does it have a name?"**_

Arnold shrugged, saying _"not officially, but in their writings your grandpa called it **Isla Libre**."_

 ** _"Hmm... Freedom Island?"_**

 _"Well yeah, that's what they wanted to mean, but funnily enough it's actually mistranslated. It literally means Free Island, cause Freedom Island should be I_ _sla de la Libertad... pretty funny..._ _"_ Lowery cut in as everyone turned to see him. _"Same with Nublar and here, for that matter. Hammond probably shoulda had some actual Spanish people around before they tried to give these places Spanish names, am I right?"_

Grant and Sattler both rolled their eyes, holding back a chuckle as Zia gave Lowery a punch on the shoulder to shut him up. They all looked back to Maisie as Zia spoke to her.

 _"Plan's pretty simple, Maze... once we've got enough ships big enough to carry all of them at once, we take them from here to there, where Karla Sealy's never gonna get to them."_

Maisie grinned at this, nodding as she looked back to the model with an eyebrow raised. **_"So... how long til you guys can get enough ships here?"_**

* * *

 **Northern California - Lockwood Manor**

The three green and black jeeps tore across the grassy field and screeched to an aggressive halt just outside the door of the run down estate. When the dust of the tires settled, Karla removed her sunglasses as she stepped out of the shotgun seat, leading Kingston and the others up the steps to the front door and striding inside the building with the armed guards that were standing in the doorway.

The guards led them into the exhibit room, and Karla was tempted to laugh as she heard the majority of her men making sounds of awe when they saw the numerous stuffed dinosaur models that were embedded in the walls. Nevertheless, she was here for business reasons. _"Adaku."_

"Ma'am?"

 _"I forgot to ask this, but... did he specifically mention why he wanted to talk to me?"_

"I..." Kingston was cut off when the door on the higher floor suddenly opened and a figure in a lab coat stepped out of the elevator.

 **"How about you ask me yourself, Miss Sealy?"**

 _"Ah. My dear Doctor Wu."_ Kingston and the others remained where they were as Karla strode up the stairs to where the scientist. Greeting him with a handshake and a theatrical kiss on the cheek, she grinned as she added _"so... you're looking well."_

 _"We need to talk. Come with me."_ Wu motioned his head to the opened elevator and went into it, Karla following him as it closed and brought them down to the lower floor. He groaned as he turned to face her, clearly indicating to Karla that this meeting was not likely to be a happy one.

"From what I've heard, Miss Sealy, your little HLF operation's been hitting a lot more setbacks recently. Dinosaurs not being counted. Quotas not being filled. You'll have a lot of explaining to do to our friends."

 _"Relax. I have it covered..."_ Karla followed Wu into the lab, scoffing as she passed the Indoraptor corpse that was laid out on the operating table. It had clearly been taken apart multiple times, and Karla felt herself being drawn to the pile of it's bones that rested on the opposite desk.

 _"And you're one to talk about setbacks, Henry. Three whole years since the incident, and you're no further along with fixing your little experiment here than when you started."_

"I can thank _you_ for that." Wu snarked as he removed his gloves. "Look, I heard about the fire. At least one man's dead but the two you actually wanted to kill survived. And now they're going to be looking everywhere for you. You don't seem to understand that if you get caught, the authorities will trace the operation back to me, and I cannot allow that."

 _"It'll be fine, Henry. The police, or the FBI or whatever, aren't going to be an issue here. At least not to us."_

Wu clearly wasn't entirely convinced, but merely shrugged as he went to get something else from his desk, leaving Karla to keep looking at the bones. "Did you at least capture the girl before you burned the Reserve to the ground?"

 _"She ran away before I got there. But I'm handling it."_ Karla checked her fingernails for dirt without even looking him in the eye. _"And I wouldn't worry about the Gradys either. I've taken care of them, for now anyway. They'll stay out of it. Or still try and get involved, in which case... more fun for me."_

"And what about the masked men?" Karla froze on the spot as Wu said this, clenching her fist and biting her bottom lip. He smirked smugly, saying "yeah, that's right... you really think I haven't heard about them?"

Karla remained silent for a moment, but cleared her throat and straightened up. _"I'm... handling that, too.. They're just a minor inconvenience."_

Wu scoffed almost with a laugh. "An inconvenience is an understatement. Just about every man and organisation that took part in that auction has been raided by them in the last month alone. Thanks to them, the dinosaurs are disappearing off the face of the earth more than they ever did under your efforts. And the buyers are all _very_ angry about it. They've no time for me as it is, but they're especially mad at you."

She turned back around to face him. _"These... vigilantes. If they're not killing the beasts, they're just doing what the Gradys did. Gathering all of their dinosaurs in one place, most likely in big, easy to gather numbers. It'll be such easy prey that they're practically doing our job for us. And all we have to do is find where their base is..."_

"You really expect all the buyers to be happy with that excuse?"

 _"It's not an excuse, Doctor, it's a fact..."_ Karla grinned as she grabbed one of the bones from the desk, throwing it from hand to hand casually. She went back to the elevator and Wu followed her into it.

As it went up and opened the doors back into the exhibit room, Karla used the bone to itch the back of her neck, and Wu didn't even bother to acknowledge the fact that she'd taken it. _"You tell your friends that it's only a matter of time before we track them down and capture all of them. Of course, they'll have to pay me directly if they want theirs back."_

"All things considered, I feel they're _definitely_ not going to be happy about that." Karla did not even look at Wu as he said this, walking down the stairs back to where the others were. "They'll want your head if this goes sideways."

 _"You missed the part where that's a problem for me."_ Karla snapped her fingers, signalling Kingston and the others to head towards the door with her following behind them.

"I fear your overconfidence will be your downfall, Miss Sealy."

 _"Oh please... when all's said and done, Doctor, you'll have what you need for your experiments..."_ she smugly strode towards the door with her men as she fastened the bone onto her belt. _"Wherever they are, they'll be running scared. And sooner or later, they'll run out of places to hide."_


	12. Mind Over Motherhood

**Mitchell Family Residence**

 _ **"Aunt Claire!"**_

Zach and Gray had grown a lot more than either Claire or Owen had expected. Gray's curly hair was cropped to a ducktail and most of the baby fat on his face had just about gone, and Zach now wore hipster glasses to go with the small beard he was working on growing.

 _"I really can't thank you enough for this, sis..."_ Claire wrapped Karen into a tight hug when she let her and Owen into the house. _"Really, I... I really can't..."_

Karen separated first, rubbing the back of her neck as she said "yeah, I mean... you guys are always welcome here... even if it's because your house got burned down by a crazy hunter lady. Ha ha... uh..."

Claire and Owen both shrugged awkwardly at this as they briefly glanced at each other, before Owen said "well... thanks anyway. So... you boys been good since I saw you last?"

The boys looked at one another with a look that mixed annoyed with amused, turning back to Owen and speaking in-sync. **_"Seriously?!"_**

* * *

Owen was talking to the boys in the living room as Karen led Claire up the stairs to the accommodations they'd organised for them. Claire and Owen had nothing with them but the clothes on their backs, so at the very least they didn't need to worry about unpacking.

"Okay, so we're letting you guys have Gray's old room. Funnily enough, just before you got here the council sent this electrician in, this morning." Karen explained as she led Claire to the spare bedroom. "She was fixing the transmission lines, or something like that, and working mostly in in the living room and here. Didn't leave a mess or anything, though, so it's still habitable."

 _"Well I can handle worse than a messy bedroom, Karen."_ Claire snarked playfully as they went into the room. Claire sighed gently as she saw the old room, smiling at the old dinosaur toys that were posed on the windowsill and the vintage Jurassic Park T-Shirt hung on the door of the closet.

She sat on the bed as Karen continued to adjust and fuss over little details in the room. _"He really shot up, didn't he?"_

"Huh?"

 _"Gray. You know, he... he's really, uh... **pshew!** "_ Claire made this noise with her mouth as she pushed her hand up like a rocket. Karen nodded warmly, saying "yeah... couple months from now he'll be shooting his way out of here, just like Zach did."

When she brushed the desk with her hand Karen eventually reached one of the old family pictures, one where she and Scott were holding their children in a group hug at the park, just managing to wipe her eye to keep back a happy tear as she laughed to herself. "You get so used to the chaos that the house feels pretty empty without it, you know..."

Claire nodded. "Yeah. I probably should have said this to you before, Karen, but hey, better late than never, so... you did a great job, raising them, that is. You know, you... you pulled through everything, made it look a lot less tough. Really wish I could."

 _"Well don't get me wrong, sis, it's tough raising any kids... especially the ones who are... you know, different."_

After a few moments of hesitation, Karen sat next to Claire on the bed, putting a gentle hand on her sister's shoulder. She knew something was bothering her, and she already had a clue what it was, so she had to be careful going about her point. "Claire..."

 _"Yep...?"_ Claire had to clear her throat briefly as she wiped her face with the back of her hand, allowing them both to see the scar on her forearm where Maisie's claws had been.

"It isn't your fault."

 _"What um... what do you, uh... **eh-hem!** What do you mean by that?"_ Claire's voice was almost snappy and she had her hands clasped together, nervously wringing them with her quivering lip implying that she was trying not to break down. _"I'm not upset, if that's what you're thin... thinking... oh god..."_

"Claire, you can't blame yourself for her running away, she..."

 ** _"Well who the hell else am I supposed to blame?!"_** Claire dropped any pretences with her outburst, crying uncontrollably as she slammed her fist down on her leg in frustration. _**"You didn't see the way she looked at me when it happened! She was so scared and... and... if I hadn't provoked it she wouldn't have... wouldn't have... oh god damn it!"**_

Karen had to keep herself from crying as she pulled Claire into a hug, kissing the top of her head as she rubbed her back affectionately. "Hey... come on, it... it's okay, Claire, you're not a bad parent. Neither of you."

 _"I was supposed to protect her, Karen... her and the reserve. I never wanted to let anything happen to her, and now... ugh..."_ Claire stopped crying but she was still melancholy and red-faced as she rested her head on Karen's shoulder.

"Hmm... well you can't never let anything happen to her. Then nothing would ever happen to her."

 _"Wait..."_ Claire looked up at her sister as she said this. _"Is that from The Croods?"_

"No. _Finding Nemo_..." they both laughed at this as Karen pulled Claire closer to herself. She went back to a more serious tone as she said "look, Claire. Maisie's... she's not like other kids. Especially not now."

 _"Yeah... yeah..."_ Claire nodded slowly as she processed what her sister was saying to her.

"That's okay, though, cause she's gotta... she's gotta figure things out for herself. They all have to eventually."

 _"But it's scary, isn't it?"_

"It sure is. The scariest thing in the world. But it's gotta be, really. And it's all worth it in the end."

 _"You really think so?"_

"Sure it is. You can only carry them for so long before they need to stand on their own two feet."

 _"Yeah... yeah I guess so..."_ Claire separated from the embrace, sitting silently and contemplatively with her hand rested on her chin. Karen smiled as she got up and patted Claire on the back before going to the door as Owen came in.

Karen shut the door behind her as Owen sat next to Claire on the bed, gently placing his hand on his wife's shoulder as she looked warmly at him. "So. How'd _your_ talk go?"

* * *

About an hour after the boys had both left, Claire and Owen were helping Karen carry the leftover plates over to the kitchen, all of them stopping in their tracks as they suddenly heard the **_KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!_** at the door.

Their heads all pricked up towards the sound as they heard it, the three of them standing still for about five seconds before the sound came again. _**KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!**_

"Karen... you expecting someone...?" Owen slowly turned to his sister-in-law as he quietly said this, Karen nervously shaking her head as she quietly edged towards the hallway.

"Should I, uh... should I get it?"

Claire and Owen looked at one another for a moment, both coming to silent agreement as they turned back to Karen and nodded. Karen nodded back as she went into the hallway, seeing the silhouette through the frosted glass of the door. Owen and Claire stayed at the edge of the wall behind the door into the living room as she did this, with Claire grabbing the umbrella from the coat rack behind her in case they needed a weapon.

 _ **CLICK-CLICK**_ went the metallic sound of the lock as Karen turned it, opening the door with wide eyes. The initial shock lowered into relief when she saw who it was.

 _"Yeah, hi, I uh... well, um... right, so I'm looking for the Grady couple."_

"Oh... they're... they're right this way..." Karen awkwardly stepped aside to let the man into the house as he removed his fedora, Claire and Owen both going wide-eyed as they came into the hallway and froze at the sight of the man.

 ** _"Dr Malcolm!?"_**

* * *

Halfway down the road, a white van was parked on the street corner, the side of it having the words _Triassic Technicians Inc._ printed on it in large, vibrant letters, while the ladder hooked on the roof concealed the small satellite dish that sticking out of it.

Once she had seen Malcolm entering the house, Kingston climbed into the driver's seat of the vehicle, removing the hard hat and electrician's vest she had been wearing as she turned on the speaker to hear what the transmission was recording. The most prominent voices she heard belonged to Claire and Malcolm, with the former being especially interested in what the latter had to say.

* * *

 ** _"Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait... what are you talking about?"_**

 _"Look, uh... long-story-short, your daughter is safe... and your dinosaurs too. My friends and I decided to take them off your hands so that the HLF couldn't get to them first."_

 ** _"What?!"_** Owen spoke in-sync with his wife at this point, before speaking on his own as he said "you... where did... ugh... where did you take them, Malcolm?"

 _"A safeplace. And the two of you are coming with me..."_

* * *

Realising what she'd just heard, Kingston quickly grabbed the phone from the glove compartment and dialled it, anxiously waiting for about five seconds before Karla picked up on the other side. _"Adaku, you better have good news calling me like this!"_

"It's the dinosaurs, boss, and the girl... I know where they are..."

 _"Oh... do tell..."_


	13. Feeling A Bit Blue

**AN: _Jurassic World: Speciation_ turned a year old today. A cause for both celebration and regret, as I expected to have this story finished long before then but circumstances have unfortunately prevented me from doing so. On the positive side, this is where the third act just about kicks into gear so the story doesn't have that long to go. Enjoy!**

* * *

It was mid-afternoon when Zia found Maisie sitting on a rock in the field, watching as the Triceratops fed it's hungry offspring. _"Hey Maze..."_

Maisie's head twitched for a moment, before she turned around to face Zia with a little smirk. _**"Oh, uh... hi..."**_

 _"What are you up to out here?"_

 ** _"Eh... just thinking."_**

 _"About the island?"_

 ** _"Yeah. The new one, that is. Libre."_**

 _"Uh-huh..."_ Zia itched the back of her head as Maisie turned back around again, sighing as she prepared to deliver her news. _"Um... ugh... look, Maisie. We sent one of our guys over to Claire and Owen."_

 ** _"Shit..."_** she could hear Maisie mutter this quickly under her breath, before she cleared her throat and tried to sound neutral. **_"Did you? Um... what did uh, um... ugh. Did they tell them where I was?"_**

 _"Yeah, well uh... that's the thing, Maze. After you left, Karla went after them."_ Zia could see Maisie freeze on the spot when she said this, obviously being worried and dreading what else Zia had to say. _"The cabin was burned to the ground. The reserve too, but the good thing is..."_

 ** _"Burned?!"_** Maisie was wide-eyed as she got up off the rock, pacing back and forth anxiously as she crossed her arms and stuttered uncontrollably to herself. **_"Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait... she... she attacked them? But what... no... no-no, they... did she... did they...?"_**

 _"Maze, it... Maisie, Maisie! Look, it's okay... they got out."_ Zia quickly sat next to the panicking girl on the rock, holding her close as she took off her glasses. _"We found them, they're safe._ _Well... not Franklin, but..."_

 ** _"Ugh..."_** Maisie groaned as she leaned forwards, putting her hand to her face. _**"It's all**_ ** _my fault... she was there for me, wasn't she?"_**

 _"Look you can't blame yourself for this, Maze. She's a..."_

 ** _"Who else am I supposed to blame?!"_** Maisie shot up and began pacing back and forth as she ranted. **_"How am I supposed to not blame myself, when crazy people like her are going after my family, and going after me?! I can't just..."_**

They both stopped to turn when they saw the Triceratops rearing up on it's hind legs and roaring loudly, it's young running behind it as their mother started stamping furiously on the ground.

 _"Ugh! Son of a bitch!"_ Zia rolled her eyes as she ran over to try pacifying the beast, while Maisie froze in her tracks as she noticed a figure skirting away through the grass.

She didn't see much of the shape, but her eyes went wide at the brief flash of turquoise-coloured scales as the figure darted into the jungle area with a familiar screech. _**"Blue...?"**_

* * *

When Karla had burned down their cabin, the last place Owen and Claire expected to be that day was sitting with Malcolm on a helicopter heading towards a secret dinosaur sanctuary on Isla Sorna. Not that they were really in the mood to complain or point this out, but the thought of this absurd turn of event still sat in the back of their tired, stressed out heads.

 _"So why exactly did Zia not mention the fact that she was working for you guys?"_ Claire had to shout this due to the sound of the rotors and the helmets they were all wearing. _"Feels like this wouldn't have happened if we were actually in on your little operation here."_

"Isn't it obvious?" Malcolm snarked with a smirk. "You'd never have listen to what we had to..."

 _ **Beep! Beep! Beep!**_ Their heads pricked up at the sound of the radar, with Owen looking to the pilot and saying _**"what is it?!"**_

 ** _"Eh... just a couple of aircraft carriers nearby."_** the pilot answered back nonchalantly. _**"They're not near the island, so... it's probably nothing we ought to worry about."**_

 _"Oh... right..."_ Owen looked back to Claire and Malcolm as they continued talking.

"As I was saying... we get that your hearts were in the right place with the whole reserve thing, but... it was never gonna work out."

Claire almost seemed offended by this. _"Well why not?"_

"Because you uh... well for one, you were gathering them all in one place and pretty much telling everyone about it." Malcolm was getting sterner as he spoke. "You weren't just overcrowded, you were exposed. You were so preoccupied with whether or not you _could_ , you didn't stop to think if you _should_. And because of that, those _HLF_ guys burned down your house and killed your friend."

Owen and Claire stayed silent for a moment to think about Franklin, with Owen speaking first as he said _"yeah, except I can't really see what you guys are doing different about this."_

"I told you already. Sorna is just like a... um... like a placeholder, you know? The new island is uninhabited, and the Lockwood estate were the only ones who even knew it exists. When we move the dinosaurs there, we're gonna... well, we're gonna keep it that way. A secret."

 _"Wait-wait-wait, hang on a second."_ Claire cut in. _"What about the next generation? Huh? What about kids like Maisie? Are they gonna grow up never seeing dinosaurs again? How... how's this island supposed to be any different from just letting Karla kill them all?"_

"With all due respect, Mrs Grady, you should have thought of that before you let them loose on the world." Malcolm crossed his arms to end the conversation, prompting Claire to look at Owen for some kind of support. He merely gave a shrug, not having anything more to use as rebuttal, to which Claire scoffed as she looked out the window beside her.

* * *

 _ **"Blue! Blue!"**_ Maisie called as she ran through the jungle. Zia and the Triceratops, as well as the conversation they'd been having before, wasn't even on her mind anymore as she raced as fast as her feet could carry her, continuing to call out the raptor's name to no reply.

She eventually stopped in the middle of a dimly lit glade, with the thick canopy above her only letting in the smallest fractals of light. Not that she really needed it with her senses, as her ears were picking up small rustlings in the bushes around her, as well as a subtle, guttural chirping that either belonged to a _Velociraptor_ or a chicken with a sore throat. And the latter option was very unlikely.

Maisie tread as lightly as she could on the ground, with a feeling in her gut that she was being watched. Stalked. Hunted. _**SNAP!**_ went the sound of a twig behind her, prompting Maisie to tense as she turned to face the noise. _**"Hmm...?"**_

To her surprise, nothing and no one was there, so she dropped her guard slightly as she turned back around. **_SQUAAAAAAARRK!_**

 ** _"AAGH! SHIT!"_** Maisie stumbled back and landed on her backside as the raptor appeared in front of her, moving backwards with her hands until she was trapped against a tree behind her. She froze on the spot and began exhaling lightly yet rapidly as it slowly stalked towards her, stopping mere inches away from her face to the point where it's breath was moving a few strands of her hair.

This was definitely Blue, not that there was any doubt in Maisie's mind beforehand, but the dark turquoise stripe that led down from her eye to her tail was the biggest giveaway. The raptor was on edge, but it seemed more curious than threatening, as she lightly sniffed at Maisie's hair and turning her head to get a better look at the child.

Maisie let her breath slow back to normal, but she remained frozen as her eyes remained fixated on the raptor in front of her. She didn't move from this spot until Blue began slowly backtracking, as if intentionally allowing Maisie to relax. But Maisie knew not to take this for granted, being calm but careful as she moved a little closer to Blue.

 ** _"Hey... hey girl..."_** Maisie had her hand extended a bit, trying to slow her breath down even more to avoid provoking the raptor. **_"Remember me?"_**

She didn't expect the raptor to remember her that much, since she was sure that Blue was more focused on killing the Indoraptor than paying any attention to the young girl hiding under the bed sheets. Not to mention Maisie's newfound mutation made her unrecognisable even to humans. As her hand moved a bit closer, Blue shrank back almost defensively, baring her teeth with a small but noticeable snarl.

 _ **"Okay... okay-okay-okay..."**_ Maisie gulped nervously as she lowered her hand a bit, taking a moment as she thought about what strategy to take with her. Of all the times she'd seen animals being tamed in both films and real-life, her mind was mostly going back to what she'd seen Owen do in the old videos, as well as the many times she'd watched _How To Train Your Dragon_ since Claire first showed it to her.

* * *

 _And here I am with Blue. Okay, so... if I show signs of weakness... hey... hey, I'm okay...  
_

* * *

Maisie took another moment to plan this out, before getting down on her knees and lowering her head in her hands, pretending to look like she was crying without laughing or chortling to herself. ** _"Ooh... oh, boo hoo, I'm so... so frightened... why me... why... why me...?"_**

She was doing this for about half-a-minute and almost considered getting back up again, but Maisie suddenly heard a small purring noise starting from besides her, getting slowly but surely louder before finally feeling the cold scales touching the side of her body. Maisie slowly lowered her hands and brought her head back up, seeing Blue's head comfortingly nestled against her shoulder.

 _ **"Hey..."**_ she whispered as the raptor looked up at her. **"Hey, I'm... I'm alright... yeah, ha ha... I'm alright..."**

* * *

 _Hyper-intelligence, cognitive bonding. **Blue is the key.**_

* * *

Blue backtracked a bit again, but remained closer to Maisie than she'd been beforehand. Maisie tried to stop herself from laughing with excitement as this happened, remaining quiet with a grin as she tilted her head right. Blue tilted her head to the left in response, and tilted it to the right when Maisie moved hers left. They did this a few more times, each more in-sync than the last, before Maisie finally straightened up again and got to her feet.

Taking a deep breath, Maisie closed her eyes and turned her head away from Blue, reaching her hand forward with her palm open. She wasn't sure whether she was going to get her arm torn off because of this, but she was mostly hopeful and confident that it wouldn't be.

Her breath stilled for a moment as she felt the scales press against her opened hand, opening one eye at a time as she turned her head back anxiously. _**"Oh... oh my god..."**_

She'd done it. She'd really done it. She, Maisie Lockwood, a human clone with mutated dinosaur DNA in her blood, had her hand firmly but gently pressed on the snout of a _Velociraptor_. There were so many things to see in this simple act. A sign of tameness, a show of trust, a symbol of friendship. Whatever they were, Maisie was completely overwhelmed, and only had one thing to say about this moment.

 ** _"Clever girl... clever clever girl..."_**


	14. Life Is A Great Stampede

Grant, Sattler and Arnold all ran to the waiting point in front of the helipad, looking up at the helicopter as it slowly hovered over the spot and gradually lowered itself down onto the landing zone. Malcolm strode out first to his associates, shaking their hands as Grant said _"how are the passengers?"_

"Still uh... still getting the hang of things, I think." Malcolm turned to Owen and Claire, motioning with his hands as if to summon them over. The Gradys looked at each other nervously, before finally stepping out and walking to where the others were. "Now, uh... Gradys, I'd like to introduce you to..."

 _"Dr. Ellie Sattler?!"_ Claire interrupted him as she began frantically shaking Sattler's hand, much to the latter's initial surprise. _"Oh my god, I'm such a huge fan of your work!"_

"Um... pleasure's all mine, Mrs Grady..." Sattler was clearly taken aback by Claire's behaviour, but kept a friendly smile on her face. Owen's eyes widened similarly when he saw Grant, who flashed a smile as he held out his hand.

"So..." he said, awkwardly but friendly in tone. "I take it you're Mr. Grady?"

 _"Uh, y... yeah, that's me. Owen."_ Owen was still slightly starstruck as he shook the old man's hand, not quite as excitedly as Claire had done with Sattler but still more than usual. _"Hey, so um... look, Dr. Grant, you probably don't remember me, but... I actually met you once, back when I was a kid... you um... ha-ha... you were digging up this one raptor skeleton, and I was there too, I said it looked like..."_

"Like a six foot turkey?" Grant chuckled a bit as this thought came to him. "Yeah, ha ha... yeah, I do remember that. And the claw too."

 _"Oh my god, yeah!"_ Owen laughed nostalgically at the memory as it came back to him. _"God, that gave me nightmares for weeks, ha ha... still, made me the man I am today, I guess, so... I got you to thank for that, doc."_

Claire looked past Sattler and Arnold as she noticed a few of the heads that were crossing by in the distance. She could recognise a few of the herbivores from the reserve, though they were in much larger numbers with others that Grant had rescued. Owen gently put a hand on her shoulder as she looked to him with a weak little grin.

 _"Yeah... yeah, I know..."_ she sighed as she looked away again, only for her eyes to widen as she noticed another familiar figure emerging from the woods. " _M... Maze?"_

Owen had to squint in the same direction his wife was looking, eventually catching sight of the girl as she walked from the trees. Even more surprising to him was the familiar raptor that was walking by her side. _"Oh my god..."_

* * *

Maisie patted Blue gently on the neck as they stepped fully into the daylight, only for her head to prick up as she heard some voices calling her name. She pondered this for a moment, before her head finally snapped up to see the figures standing in the distance calling to her.

 ** _"Owen... Claire...?"_**

 _"Maisie!"_ Both Owen and Claire shouted this as they started running towards their daughter, with Claire nearly stumbling several times as she sprinted. Maisie could feel her eyes go wide as they started flowing with tears and her heart almost felt like it was going to jump out of her chest with the relief and excitement that she felt to see her parents again. She was just able to overcome the sheer euphoria that was classing through her body so she could run towards them as well, being only about fifty yards away when she called back.

 ** _"You came for me! You actually came for me!"_**

 ** _BOOM!_** One of the abandoned laboratories suddenly burst into flames, setting off a deafening explosion that shook the island and everyone on it. Maisie was taken off her feet by the shock of the blast, falling onto her hands and knees as she turned to see Blue running away. _"No! Blue, wait! Come back!"_

 _"Maisie!"_ Claire called, but the latter ignored her as she followed after the raptor, only to freeze in her tracks as she saw the viscous, orange flames that were blazing through the trees. The wind of the fire was blowing Maisie back with it's strength, but it wasn't able to hide the distant but growing rumble of hundreds of loud, scared roars coming from the trees.

 ** _"Oh shit!"_**

A tsunami of carnivores, omnivores and herbivores of all sizes came gushing out of the jungle, all trying to escape the ravenous fire that was chasing them. Maisie turned and ran as fast as she could with the stampede, eventually reaching a tall rock and hiding behind it so they passed her. The beasts flew by with such power and velocity that she couldn't spot Blue during it, only just managing to spot a brief flash of teal before it was swept away in the crowd.

 **"Everybody get to high ground!"** Grant called as they all followed him to a higher platform, with Malcolm just narrowly avoiding an _Ankylosaurus_ as it ploughed into the helicopter and sent it plummeting off the cliff and into the ocean below.

Sattler spotted Lowery, Zia and Vivian running towards them, trying their best to manoeuvre around the stampede. "Lowery! What the hell is going on?!"

 _"It's the HLF! They're here!"_ Lowery called back, before Zia suddenly tackled him out of the path of a rampaging _Stegosaurus_. The beast suddenly roared out as a tranquilliser dart flew into her neck, landing face-first on the ground as several armed men ran towards them.

"They're gonna head for the cliffs!" Zia shouted as she reached the others. "Just like Nublar!"

 _"Wait, the cliffs... oh no..."_ Owen panted as he ran to one of the cliff-edge, muttering curse words to himself as he looked at the ocean to see the three large aircraft carriers all circling all sides of the island. Smaller boats were emerging from the carriers with _HLF_ troops on board, all of them armed to the teeth with nets and tranquilliser guns, while several military-grade helicopters began hovering over the island above them. **_"No-no-no-no-no!"_**

"Get them to the ships!" Kingston was commanding the first group of troops as they tied up and loaded the already unconscious beasts, holding a tranquilliser in her hands as she shot down any dinosaurs that crossed her path. "Not one dinosaur gets away from us!"

She found herself preoccupied with the _Brachiosaurus_ her men were tying up that she failed to notice the Triceratops that was thundering up behind her. Maisie noticed this, not even being able to stop and think about it as she darted over and tackled Kingston to the ground, shielding the trapper's body with her own as the large herbivores thundered over them. This lasted for a few seconds before the stampede calmed somewhat, with Maisie still shielding Kingston for a few extra moments just to be sure.

 ** _"Are you... ugh..."_** Maisie panted a bit as she got back to her feet, standing over Kingston with her hand out. **_"Are you okay?"_**

"Wow..." Kingston went wide-eyed as she looked up at her rescuer. She clearly had to get through a brief moment of shock when she actually saw who it was, but she seemed less afraid and more glad that the very being she'd been sent to capture had actually risked her life to save her. "Th... thank you."

 _Zzzip!_

 ** _"Ugh!"_** Maisie wheezed out as the tranquilliser dart flew into the back of her neck, falling back unconscious into the arms of another masked soldier. Karla removed her mask and threw it aside as she looked at the girl she was holding, turning to Kingston as she said "we have what we need... get all the others onto the ships!"

 ** _"Maze!"_** Claire and Owen both shouted this as they saw Karla carrying Maisie over to the cages, throwing her into the smallest one and locking it tight. The cages were all loaded onto several platforms, which were lifted via crane hooks onto the boats to be taken to the aircraft carriers. Karla stood atop the pile of cages that Maisie's was apart of, grinning as she saw Claire, Owen and the others looking at her.

 **"You treehuggers tried your best!"** She called mockingly through a megaphone as the crane lifted the cages up with her still standing on top of them. **"But this is just how it's meant to be!"**

Claire was hyperventilating, clenching her fists as her head and heart fumed with fear, worry and pure rage all at once. _"No... no-no-no-no-no! Maisie!"_

 _"Claire! Don't!"_ Owen called out to his wife as she frantically ran as fast as she could, panting aggressively as the cages got more and more out of reach. Claire was forced to stop at the very edge of the cliff, watching as the cranes lowered the cages onto the ships and they started floating away. They were far out of her reach now, and she couldn't do anything about it.

 ** _"MAISIE!"_** her lungs were hopelessly strained as she cried out with all her strength, falling to her knees as she threw her fist hard onto the ground. **_"MAISIE!"_**

* * *

The others all stood about a hundred yards away from where Claire was still sitting on the cliff edge. She'd been sitting there like a statue for a good half-hour, still staring off into the distance where the ships had gone with Maisie and the dinosaurs all imprisoned on it. From how she was sitting it seemed she had just about given up, and Owen had his hand to his face as he looked to the rest of the group.

Zia sulked miserably as she walked back from the woods, with the fire having finally been completely put out. "Well, we've searched the whole island. It's just like we thought..."

"She's taken everything?" Grant asked.

"Yep, everything. Rexy, Blue... they're all gone..."

 _"Do we have any idea where Karla's taking them?"_ Owen asked, before Sattler shrugged with a sigh. _"What's she gonna do with Maze?"_

"Who knows?" Sattler said. "Probably to sell them back to everyone we rescued them from. As for Maisie, well... she's either gonna be a test subject or she's gonna hang as a trophy in Sealy's private collection."

 _"That's never gonna happen. Not in a million years."_ Claire's voice suddenly spoke as they all turned, seeing her standing in front of them suddenly with her fists clenched and a steely, determined scowl on her still tear-stained face. _"Ever since Nublar I've done everything in my power to protect those dinosaurs and Maisie, and if Karla Sealy thinks she's gonna stop me from doing that now, she's got another thing coming! Who's with me?!"_

"With you? Uh... I'm gonna have to hear a plan before I answer that, Mrs Grady..." Malcolm snarked, before Owen stood by his wife and took her hand confidently.

 _"We're gonna get them back."_ he said as Claire grinned at him. _"All of them. Whatever it takes."_

 _"And how exactly are we gonna do that?"_ Vivian asked with a raised eyebrow. _"The choppers are all busted, the lab's burnt down and they're probably half-way to the mainland by now. I mean... unless we grow gills and swim there we'll never get to them in time..."_

"Well actually..." Lowery cut in as they all turned to him, a smug grin forming on his face as he put his hands on his hips. "There's _one_ way we can still catch up to them..."


	15. Tales Of Wu

**_"Ugh..."_** Maisie had to squint so her eyes could adjust to the bright lights beaming down in her face, trying in vain to move around and get a view of where she actually was. Her advanced senses seemed to be tripping in a panic all at once, which only made her **_"No... come on... come on! UGH!"_**

The tight leather straps around her wrists, ankles and chest seemed to indicate that she was restrained to an operating table of some kind, and the lights shining into her eyes were actually coming from a surgical lamp that was positioned from the ceiling. After a few seconds of this continued struggling, Maisie eventually decided to calm down and rest back on the table, finally managing to get a better view of her surroundings.

The spotless, pearl-white office reminded her of a dentist's room, though the table on her right that displayed fossilised bones and half-dissected animal corpses seemed more like something out of a high school biology class. On her left was a smaller table, one covered in an array of sharp surgery tools that would definitely _not_ be used in safer, more legal operations. Perhaps a couple of Tesla coils would have managed to convince Maisie that was merely being imprisoned in the laboratory from an old-school _Frankenstein_ movie, but the lack of those more cartoonish elements unfortunately kept her grounded in the reality that she was, indeed, soon to be taken apart in some horrifying and painful manner.

"I tried my best to keep your stay here as comfortable as possible." a somewhat familiar voice from behind the operating table said, which caused Maisie's head to snap up as far back as it could go. The man the voice belonged to was also familiar.

"You know who I am, Miss Lockwood?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, prompting Maisie to calmly nod.

 ** _"You're Dr. Henry Wu... you used to work for my grandfather."_** a scowl crossed her face as her next words came out with a guttural snarl. **_"And Mills..."_**

"Well really, I like to think I worked _with_ Mills, not _for_ him." Wu's smugness started to falter as he paused for a moment. "But I will say that I'm very pleased, and extremely honoured, to have you here, Maisie..."

Maisie wasn't putting up with this kind of patronising flattery, being blunt and getting straight to the point as she spoke. **_"What do you want with me?"_**

"Hmm... well, since the park reopened on Nublar I spent years trying to improve and advance my genetic research." WU went to a large glass case in the corner and put his hand to it. "My hypothesis was that... if we successfully crossed and fused the DNA of a dinosaur with that of a human being, then we'd be able to produce an entirely new genus of creature... combining their raw strength and power with our advanced intellect and empathy... the best of both worlds..."

 ** _"You're insane..."_**

"Well admittedly, my work has hit quite a few... _learning curves_."

The door on the large case began to slowly open as Wu turned it around for Maisie to see. When she saw what it was Maisie could feel her eyes almost bulge out of her skull as her breath stilled in her already tightened throat.

The ice in the casing had clearly managed to keep the corpse from decaying over the three years, which allowed the jet black demon of Hell to look almost as vicious and alive as it had been during it's rampage at Lockwood Manor. It's claws and teeth were still as sharp as they were when it crept towards her in the bed that night, and the sick, twisted smile was still etched onto it's cold, dead face.

"The _Indominus_ was a flawed prototype, and the _Indoraptor_ was a... well, perhaps would have worked in a better environment..." Wu re-encased the remains of the impaled _Indoraptor_ , before looking back to Maisie. "But then I found out Lockwood made _you_."

Maisie had to resist the urge to attempt an escape again, knowing that she'd just hurt herself if she struggled anymore against her restraints, but she was clenching her fists as Wu came closer to her, kneeling down so they were now face-to-face. "Lockwood was simply a man broken by grief, and he just wanted to bring back his daughter... but he had _no idea_ what he'd done when he created you."

Maisie felt the scowl tightening her face again as she glared piercingly at Wu, who wasn't alarmed in the slightest as he leaned closer. "It's gonna take a little work, of course, but I believe that you just might be the missing link in my theory..."

She thought for a moment about this as she glanced towards the tools on her left, turning back to Wu as she said **_"I take it you don't intend for me to live through this..."_**

 _"Well if you don't, you'll have a perfectly good spot hanging on my wall..."_ Maisie's head snapped up again as she looked towards the doorway, where Karla was standing casually with her sunglasses on. She smugly smiled at the growl that Maisie was making under her breath, taking off her shades as she stood over the girl.

 _"It's probably better this way..."_ Karla stroked the spines on Maisie's head with a patronising tone in her voice. _"You're either going to contribute to some of the greatest scientific discoveries of mankind's history, or you'll be the perfect centrepiece of my wonderful collection... far better alternatives than walking around in public as a freak, wouldn't you say?"_

Karla had just about said her bit, casually turning towards the doorway again before Maisie spoke up. **_"You're wrong..."_**

She froze in her tracks as she heard this, turning back to the young girl with a raised eyebrow as Wu also sat back curiously. _"Come again...?"_

 ** _"I said you're wrong, you both are!"_** Maisie looked sternly to them both, having finally found a much-needed burst of confidence. **_"I'm not a freak, I'm not a trophy, and I'm not your stupid little labrat! My name is Maisie Lo... UGH!"_**

Maisie's speech, which she'd been piecing together in her head since around the same time Wu started talking, was cut short as the room began to violently shake and shudder, as if it were directly hit by an earthquake or a tsunami. _**SCREEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCHHHHH!**_

 **"ARGH!"** The force that had hit the carrier was causing the entire room to tilt on it's side, sending both Wu and Karla into the wall on the right as the Indoraptor's casing shattered and the corpse flopped lifelessly onto the ground. Maisie bit her bottom lip hard as the operating table stayed bolted to the floor, causing the restrains to get even tighter on her to the point where she felt her hands and feet becoming blue with the pressure.

It took a few moments for the room and ship to stop shaking, though the balance was still extremely unstable as Karla struggled back to her feet and propped herself up against the wall behind her. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and clutched the cut that had been made on the side of her face, looking to the doorway as she shouted _**"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE?!"**_

 **"Miss Sealy!"** Kingston burst into the room as Karla and Wu turned to her. Her face and clothes were soaked to the skin and her breath was heavy yet quick, panting with a struggle to say something else.

 _"Well...?"_ Karla had her hands on her hips and an annoyed scowl on her face as she straightened herself back up. _"What was that?"_

Kingston was still trying to get her breath back, stuttering as she stretched out her arms clumsily. "B... b-big... it... it's a giant..."

 _"Well come on, spit it out!"_

 **"It's a fucking _Mososaurus!_ "**


	16. Beauty Vs Beast

Karla ran out of the office, seeing the massive waves splashing and rocking every vessel in their fleet. Crew members were swept away and knocked overboard by these waves, and the cages on top of the deck were being knocked from side to side with each new strike.

Her eye eventually caught onto the large behemoth that was protruding from the wave beside the carrier, as well as the small cruiser that was trailing behind it. Because of the mist created by the _Mososaurus'_ waves, Karla had to squint a bit to notice the Jurassic Park logo that was emblazoned on the side of this boat, and squint a bit more to see who was actually inside it.

 _"It's them!"_ she snarled as she turned to Kingston, saying _"that little freak doesn't leave that table, understand?!"_

Kingston took a moment to answer, nodding as she said "yes, ma'am..."

Karla nodded back as she ran across the chaotic deck, heading towards her private quarters to arm herself for battle.

* * *

The _Mososaurus_ had moved back around to the second of the three carriers, so Lowery decided to pull the boat alongside the third. **"Alright, first stop! Who's getting off?!"**

Zia and Vivian, both arming themselves with classic hunting rifles, jumped over from the boat to the carrier's main deck as Grant and Sattler armed themselves as well. Sattler looked to Claire as she said "you guys remember the plan, right?"

"Yeah..." Sattler said back. "Take control here and set the dinosaurs free... you two get the girl..."

Owen nodded back confidently as Sattler and Grant jumped over as well, joining Vivian and Zia as they fought their way through the guards and crew members to get to the cages. Lowery turned to Arnold, saying "here, keep us steady!" as he ran over to Owen and Claire.

 _"Where do you think they're keeping Maisie?!"_ Owen said as Claire answered "probably which ever one Sealy's on! **Oh shit!** "

 _ **BRAT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT!**_ Owen, Claire, Lowery and Malcolm all ducked to the floor as the rapid fire of machine guns came from the watchtower of the first carrier, which prompted Claire to look to where Arnold was at the wheel. _"Get us outta here!"_

 **"Hold onto your butts!"** Missing an arm meant that Arnold had to put more effort into steering the boat in the opposite direction, which wasn't helped by the continued assault of bullets raining onto them. He remained perfectly calm, however, managing to avoid most of the fire as they headed for the second carrier.

* * *

Karla stepped out of her quarters, fully armoured in her usual hunting gear with her crossbow on her belt and a string of hand grenades loosely wrapped over her shoulder. She glared at the small boat as it pulled up on the second carrier, looking to the crew member from the artillery tower above her. **_"Keep firing on that boat with everything you've got!"_**

* * *

 _"Alright, some of the bigger cages are on the next one!"_ Malcolm shouted over to Owen and Claire as they climbed onto the second carrier, fighting through the still violent waves as well as the hail of bullets. _"We're gonna head over there and see if we find your kid!"_

 _"Got it!"_ Owen shouted back, before Claire said _"if you get Maisie there, get her on the boat and as far away from Sealy as possible!"_

"Will do!" Lowery answered as he took the wheel back from Arnold. "Good luck, you two!"

* * *

"What is it?" Kingston answered the radio on her belt, as Karla's voice ranted furiously from the other side. _"The Gradys are on the next ship. The second they get near you, shoot them dead!"_

"Understood..." Kingston sighed as she cut off the transmission, holding her rifle firm in her grip. Wu was clearly uneased as he frantically tried gathering his things, getting out what appeared to be a tranquilliser shot as he headed over to use it on Maisie. "You guys have this under control, right...? Right?!"

 **"HE-YAH!"** Maisie went wide-eyed as Kingston swung the butt of her rifle into Wu's face, causing him to fall back close to unconsciousness as he hit the floor hard. She looked to Kingston as the latter ran over to her, throwing her rifle on the ground as she began unfastening Maisie's restraints.

 ** _"Wait... wait-wait-wait, what are you doing?!"_**

Kingston stepped back once she had finished releasing the girl, throwing open the door that led to the main deck. "I've not got much to lose... besides, I owed you one. Your parents are on the next ship. You need to get to them now, before she..."

 _ **Zzip!**_ The air rushed out of Kingston's lungs as the arrow pierced her back, with the pointed head protruding straight through the left side of her chest where her heart was. Maisie went wide-eyed as she darted forwards, just managing to catch Kingston as she collapsed to her knees.

She cushioned the older woman's fall and lay Kingston on her back, pulling the arrow out of her chest before she looked up to see where it had come from. Karla was standing a hundred yards away on the deck, still pointing the crossbow that she'd just fired.

 _"You can never get reliable help these days, can you?"_ she called mockingly as she reached into her pouch to pull out a few more arrows. _"Everyone's such a bloody disappointment when you most need them!"_

Maisie looked back to Kingston, who panted weakly as the blood started to dribble from her nose and mouth and her eyes began to flutter. "G... go... go now..."

 ** _"Thank you..."_** Maisie held Kingston's hand tight for a few more seconds, feeling it go limp in her own hand as Kingston rested her head back, succumbing to her wound as her last breath was drawn. Maisie could feel her own breath being quicker as she stood up from the corpse, glancing up at Karla as the latter started walking towards her.

 ** _"If you want me in your collection..."_** she shouted angrily yet provocatively as she headed out the door, not breaking eye contact with the predator. **_"You'll have to kill me first, won't you!"_**

Karla grinned at this challenge as Maisie started running in the opposite direction, reattaching the crossbow to her belt as she started chasing after her prey.

* * *

On the third carrier, Sattler and Grant had managed to get to the lower level, finding the ship's main control panel and taking control of it.

"Should we chance giving the girls some exercise?" Sattler asked with a raised eyebrow, prompting Grant to chuckle as he said "sure, let's chance it..."

He pressed the switch on the panel that linked all of the cages on this carrier, with the assorted yells and screams from above indicating that they'd all been opened.

"They're only herbivores..." Grant grinned as the rumbling of footsteps and the anguished cries of Karla's men continued. "What's the worst that could happen?"

* * *

Claire and Owen managed to reach the cages on the second carrier, with Claire quickly realising that the entrance to the ship's lower level, and the control panel, was locked and bolted tight. _"Shit... Owen, it's gonna take forever to open all these things one-by-one... we're not gonna get to Maisie in time!"_

 _ **"Damn it!"**_ Owen slammed his fist against the cage beside him, only for his eyes to widen as he heard the familiar grumble coming from it. He looked up with a grin at the particular dinosaur inside this cage, smugly saying _"then again... maybe we won't need to..."_

* * *

Having reached the lower level of the first carrier, Maisie reached the control panel and did what she'd figured her allies on the others were doing, setting every cag on the ship to be opened. She was hoping that Blue would be among the captives on this same vessel, but she hadn't managed to find her in any of the cages she had passed by. She was determined to keep that raptor safe, even if she had to cross to the other vessels to get to her.

 _"Gotcha!"_ Karla snapped as she ran into the room brandishing her crossbow, not noticing Maisie slip past from behind the door until it was too late. _"Wait... NO!"_

Maisie shut the large, metal door and bolted it tight, having broken the inside of the lock before trapping Karla there, before running back up the steps to the main deck of the carrier. An intense downpour of rain was darkening the already dreary sky around her, making the sweeping waves that the _Mosasaurus_ created seem even more dangerous and threatening.

She had to squint as she looked across the raging waves to the second carrier, her face beaming with excitement as she noticed the two familiar figures standing on the top deck near the cages there.

 _ **"OWEN... CLAIRE!"**_

* * *

 **CRASH!**

With some provocation from Owen, the _Stygimoloch_ made light and quick work of the metal door leading to the control panel. Claire was in and out as fast as possible, pressing the switch that opened the cages before rejoining Owen on the main deck.

They all looked at the cages as they opened and the other dinosaurs came thundering out, prompting Karla's men to either run for cover or abandon ship, but they couldn't spot Maisie anywhere in the crowd. Owen sighed in frustration, looking to Claire as he said _"she must be on the other sh..."_

 _"Wait... Owen, do... do you hear that...?"_ Claire's head pricked up and she put a hand closer to her ear as she moved to her left, with Owen also trying to hear what she was talking about.

 _ **"Owen... Claire... OWEN!... CLAIRE!"**_ the voice shrieked louder and louder, before they both went wide-eyed at the sight of the figure waving to them from the first carrier.

 ** _"MAISIE!"_**

* * *

 ** _"Ugh!"_** Maisie grunted as the butt of a rifle smacked her in the side of the head, sending her spiralling down as she landed back first on the floor of the deck. She immediately tried to clamber back up and retaliate against her attacker, only for Wu to press his foot down hard on her chest and keep her planted to the floor.

"Oh yeah... not so tough now, are you, you little shit!"

Having given up any pretence of politeness and respectability, Wu had discarded his lab coat and was loosely holding the rifle in one hands and a small flare in the other. He cracked off the top of the flare, laughing in an unhinged state as he let the flames sparkle and fizzle in the darkness around them, holding it up above his head as he yelled.

 **"Sealy, I got her! Sealy...? We're over here! SEALY, where are you?!"**

Maisie still grunted as she struggled to get up from under his foot, suddenly freezing on the spot as she heard the sound. That terrible, mysterious, _wonderful_ sound.

 _ **Boom... Boom... BOOM...**_

She glanced to her left at the small puddle beside her, watching the water ripple more and more with each rumbling footstep, becoming more and more volatile as it became closer, and louder. Wu noticed this not long after, still standing still with the flare in hand as he pondered where the noise could have been coming from.

 ** _BOOM... BOOM... BOOM..._**

Suddenly, the rumbling vibrations stopped, being replaced by what seemed to be the sound of a long, cold breath, and a low, grumbling growl. It hit them both like a ton of bricks when they finally processed what this noise was, or rather, who it was, as Wu turned around to see what was standing there behind him.

The T-Rex lowered her head down to the petrified scientist's level, letting out a long, loud, earth-shaking roar (you _know_ the one) that sent Wu stumbling back. Taking his foot off of the girl's chest, Wu dropped the flare as he ran screaming from Maisie in a panic. This attempted escape was all for naught, as the mighty Queen took merely two steps before her large toothy maw ripped him off of his feet.

 **"YEEAAARRRGGGGHHH!"**

Maisie had to look away for a few moments as Wu still squealed and screamed with his last bit of life, but looked up with a proud, awed grin as the great reptilian monarch continued striding onward toward the rest of the terrified crew.

 _ **"Thanks Rexy!"**_

"Hey kid!" her head pricked up at the sound of Lowery's voice, looking to her right to see the boat that was pulling alongside the carrier. She smiled in almost relief as she starting walking over to the boat, only to let out a muffled scream as a hand covered her mouth from behind and dragged her back.

 _"And where do you think you're going?!"_ Karla snapped like a snarling jungle cat, with her face now being covered in thick black soot and her hair as unkempt and untamed as the Amazonian rainforest. Maisie wailed and squealed as she tried to escape her grip, her eyes going wide as Karla pointed the crossbow right against her temple.

* * *

 _"How do we get over there!?"_ Claire shouted worryingly to Owen as they both watched Karla forcefully pin their daughter to the floor again, pointing the crossbow right at her throat now. Owen pondered as quickly as he could, with his eyes and mind eventually being cast to the barely submerged _Mosasaurus_ that was slowly passing by in front of them.

* * *

 _"Wu doesn't need you for his absurd little experiments anymore..."_ Karla had a crazed look in her eyes as she prepared to pull the trigger. _"You're all mine now, dino-girl!"_

 _ **"NO!"**_ Maisie sent her foot right between Karla's legs as the latter wheezed for breath. She tried to weasel her way out of Karla's grip again, only for Karla to clutch onto a clump of the smaller girl's hair and pull her back as Maisie cried out. Both were overcome with rage and adrenaline as they struggled, with Maisie finally giving into her primal urge as she swivelled around and sank her canines into Karla's wrist.

 _"Argh, you little...!"_ Karla sent a fist into Maisie's face that knocked her back again. She took a moment to look at the bloody teeth marks on her forearm, before throwing her crossbow aside as she placed both hands on the child's neck. Maisie continued to struggle as Karla continued to tighten her grip, with her panting eventually turning to wheezing and then to choking.

 ** _"Ugh... n... no... no! You... won't... get away with th... ugh!"_** Maisie could feel her breath seizing up even more as she flailed her arms around, eventually getting one hand on Karla's face as her claws extended to their fullest point. **_"Get off of ME!"_**

She could feel the points of her nails cutting into flesh as she dragged her hand down Karla's face. **_"AAAAAARRRRGGGGH!"_**

Karla fell back hard on the floor, clutching her face as the blood poured profusely between her fingers, with Maisie shooting back up as the air filled her lungs again. Karla was already starting to recover again, so Maisie trusted her first instinct to dart over to the crossbow before the crazed, enraged hunter could get a hold of it herself.

 _"Maisie!"_ Claire's voice caused the girl to freeze on the spot, though she still kept the crossbow pointed in Karla's direction as the latter got up to her knees. The left side of her face was marked by four long, deep wounds that striped down from her forehead to her chin, with there now being a bloody, messy hole where her eye used to be.

"Well-well-well... a family reunion..." she snarked bitterly as the blood leaked from her face onto her hands, looking to Owen and Claire as they stood about 24ft away from their daughter. "How quaint... now... get it over and done with, will you...?"

Maisie looked back to Karla, feeling her hands shake a bit as she tried to keep a grip on the crossbow. "Well, come on then! We've not got all day, deary! Shoot me!"

"Um... I um..." Maisie felt her rage slowly burning out, replaced mostly by a conflict of choice that wrestled aggressively in her mind. She looked between her parents and attacker a few more times, trying to keep her distance as Claire slowly started heading closer to her.

 _"Maze... honey... you don't have to do this..."_ she said in a gentle tone that still betrayed a hint of worry, only for Karla to scoff as she said _"speak for yourself, Claire... the only way any of you are getting away from me alive is if she pulls that trigger... come on, you little freak... isn't it the human thing to do...?"_

"Maze... please..." Claire crept a little closer, only for Maisie to tighten her grip on the crossbow again as she looked to Karla.

 _ **"You're wrong..."**_ Owen and Claire both froze as Maisie said this, though Karla remained nonchalant as she said _"oh, of course... this is that little speech you were working on, isn't it? Alright, just wrap it up fast, will you..."_

 ** _"It's not the human thing to do... none of this is..."_** Maisie remained stern and confident as she spoke. **_"And... I'm not a freak... I'm not a trophy... and I'm not a stupid little labrat... I'm just a 12 year-old girl, who loves dinosaurs, and loves her family with every fibre of her being... and I'm not a killer, and I never will be... because I'm not like you, Karla Sealy..."_**

Karla rolled her eyes at this as she knelt up, nonchalantly wincing as her eye socket continued to gush out blood. _"Go on... get to your point..."_

 _ **"My name... is Maisie Lockwood Grady..."**_ Maisie didn't break eye contact with Karla as she lowered the crossbow, while Owen and Claire both watched proudly at who their daughter was turning into right before their very eyes. ** _"And I am more of a human being than you will ever be!"_**

 _"Wait!"_

Maisie brought her kneecap up and threw the crossbow horizontally onto it, snapping it in half as the cogs and arrows came clattering onto the floor. Karla was initially wide-eyed with shock at the sight of her beloved signature weapon lying in splinters and pieces on the floor, only for them to fixate on Maisie with all the intensity of the fires of Hell.

 _"You..."_ she snarled viciously as she reached slowly for the pouch on her thigh holster, grabbing the hilt that was protruding from it. _"You little **bitch!** "_

 ** _SNIKT!_** Karla tore the knife from its holster and charged screaming at Maisie, swinging it back and forth with uncontrollable ferocity as Maisie fell back narrowly trying to avoid these furious swipes. A few times Maisie wasn't quite quick enough to avoid the blade and it just nicked her arm and leg, though Karla was more often cutting herself through her visceral clumsiness.

 ** _"GAH!"_** Maisie yelped as Karla's penultimate swipe slashed the blade right down her chest, falling onto her back as she felt her tough skin being sliced open and the blood dribbled down onto her shirt and hands. Karla took a moment to admire this stroke of luck, preparing to thrust her knife right into the heart of her victim before Owen sent his fist straight and right into her jaw.

Karla hit the ground like a sack of potatoes while Owen and Claire rushed over to Maisie and propped their daughter back up. Claire was almost hyperventilating at the sight of the blood that was slowly oozing down Maisie's chest, quickly pressing the sleeve of her own shirt there to keep the thick red fluid inside her daughter's body.

Though it bled quite a bit for another moment or so, Owen could tell the attack that made the injury was too clumsy for the result to be anything more than a flesh wound, so they all exchanged a smile and a laugh as they held each other close. Maisie could feel the tears streaming down her face and the snot dribbling down from her nostrils as she hugged both her parents tight, babbling uncontrollably for a good thirty seconds before she finally started saying something they could comprehend.

 ** _"I'm so sorry... I... I'm so sorry I ran away, I'm so sorry I hurt you Claire, I was just so..."_**

 _"No... no-no-no, it's okay, Maze, it's okay..."_ Claire kissed the child's forehead and hugged her even tighter, with Owen still trying his best to remain part of the embrace. _"We're just so glad you're safe... Maisie, we... we love you too... you hear that? We love you so much and we've been so worried, but... but we're here now... we're all here together and that's all that matters..."_

"Yeah... yeah, it is..." Maisie smiled as she kept her head buried in her mother's chest, before another voice spoke up again.

 _"Well... isn't that just the sweetest, most sickening sight I've seen all day..."_

Owen held his wife and daughter protectively as they all turned to look at Karla, who wiped the trail of blood from her lips as she tried her best to regain her strength and get back up.

 _"It's over, Karla..."_ Claire said sternly, but this didn't stop Karla from chuckling as she slowly pulled herself to her knees, quickly tearing the arrow out of her shoulder as she let the blood dribble down her arm. _"You've lost... plain and simple..."_

 _"Hmm... the way I see it, I've not lost shit... and if I can't have these dinosaurs, then... ugh... then no one can! **AH HA HA HA HA HAAA!** "_ Karla cackled as she tore the pin from one of the grenades on her belt, with Owen, Claire and Maisie all speaking in-sync as they realised how many explosives she was actually wearing.

 _ **"OH SHIT!"**_


	17. An Explosive Farewell

**_KA-BOOM!_**

The explosion shook the carrier like an asteroid making contact, while Karla continued her high-pitched breakdown as her body disappeared into the flames. The flames fell down onto the lower deck, causing several smaller explosions inside the ship as the waves started to sweep large chunks of it under the water.

The Gradys still held tight to each other as they watched the dinosaurs all rushing away from the fire, with most of them stopping at the very edge of the carriers while a few mustered up the courage to jump overboard into the waves.

The next explosion went off on the corner of the ship, with Maisie pointing her hand out hopelessly as several of the smaller species were consumed in the blast. She was about to run towards the rest before Claire pulled her away, looking to Owen as she said _"the whole thing's going under! We gotta get off this thing!"_

"Guys, over here!" Lowery shouted over to the Gradys from the boat, with Maisie pushing Owen and Claire ahead. _"Wait Maze, what... what are you doing...?"_

 _ **"I won't let them die!"** _she snapped back as she pulled away from her parents. **_"Tell them to bring round the other ships! I'll meet you over there!"_**

 _"Maisie!"_ Claire called after her as she darted over to where the dinosaurs were, but Owen held his wife back. He smiled at her, saying _"she knows what she's doing... come on!"_

* * *

Maisie darted down into the lower deck, covering her mouth and trying to avoid the ravenous fire as she freed any of the still-living dinosaurs that had been tied up here. **_"Come on... go... GO!"_ **she barked desperate orders at them, with most of the beasts already heading upwards to the higher deck with the others. The majority of the larger dinosaurs had been caged on the top deck so they were already out, whereas it was many of the smaller species that were imprisoned down here.

 ** _SQUAAAAAAARRK!_**

The familiar caw alerted Maisie as she froze with wide eyes, looking to the very end of the room where the raptor was chained up and struggling to break free. **_"BLUE!"_**

Waiting until the deck was completely vacated by the other dinosaurs, Maisie rushed over to where Blue was, trying her best to manoeuvre her way through the barricade of flames that continued to keep them apart. Part of the floor gave way, creating a crack right between them as the water broke through. While her footing became less stable, Maisie noticed that this water was helping to keep the fire at bay, which gave her just enough time to jump over the gap to her goal.

The raptor was still panicking as she struggled to escape, so Maisie had to keep her distance with her hands up. _**"Alright, just calm down... okay... okay-okay-okay... I'm gonna get you out of here, girl..."**_

Blue let Maisie close enough to pull off the leather strap that Karla's men had taped around her maw, letting the raptor open her mouth more as she shook her head. Maisie tried to think as fast as she could while the fire continued blazing and the water continued to rise, taking a few seconds before her eye caught a glance at the long, metal pipe in the corner behind the raptor.

 ** _"Ah-ha!"_**

* * *

 **"HEY! Over here! Look over here!"**

The third carrier made its way over to the flaming wreck, with Grant running to the very edge with a flare in his hand. He ignited it as the carriers got as close as they could to the sinking wreckage, letting the trapped dinosaurs fixate on the sparkling flames as he started walking backwards.

Once he'd made sure they were all focused on it, Grant threw the flare behind him before he ran in that same direction, with Sattler pulling him out of the way of the dinosaurs as they came thundering across to the third carrier.

Lowery pulled the _Jurassic Park_ boat alongside the second carrier, letting Owen, Claire and Arnold get off as they watched the dinosaurs arriving on the third. Claire was still worried as she ran ahead to the very edge. _"Owen, can you see Maze?"_

Owen squinted as much as he could. _"No, but she's gotta get out quick... that hunk of junk's not gonna hold long."_

* * *

Maisie dug the pipe into the metal hinge attaching Blue's chains to the floor, pressing her full body weight into it and pushing it down with all her strength. Her hands and chest both hurt like hell as she kept pressing, but she could definitely feel the chains give way and knew she couldn't give up until Blue was freed. **_"Come on, come on... HUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHH!"_**

 ** _BOOM!_** A final explosion erupted from the control room just as the chain broke, with Blue letting out a frantic, high-pitched cry as she jumped free and headed towards the exit. Maisie shrieked as she was sent back by the blast and hit the back of her head hard against the wall behind her, flopping like a rag doll onto the floor as the walls finally broke and the room was completely submerged in a powerful sweep of water.

She tried to keep her mouth shut as she was swept in, feeling the waves dragging her body down with the rest of the carrier while she frantically tried to swim to the surface. The harder she pushed, the more energy she used up and the heavier the waves seemed to get, and Maisie had to fight to keep her eyes open while holding her breath tight. It took about thirty seconds of this struggling before her arms and legs started to numb with the cold and the dark started to close in, and despite Maisie's best efforts her eyelids were getting heavier than ever, eventually drooping and closing as the light completely disappeared around her.

* * *

The second carrier pulled alongside the third as everyone watched the first finally disappear into the waves. Claire and Owen both crossed to the third carrier as Grant and Sattler rounded the just-rescued dinosaurs into smaller groups. Sattler turned to face them, saying "that's all the ones we could get... "

 _"What about M... Maisie? Is she here?"_ Claire had a worried tone in her voice, but Sattler didn't answer back as she and Grant both went wide-eyed. This confused Claire at first, but she seemed more frustrated when she said _"well... is she?! Where's my daughter?!"_

"Oh my god! Over there!" Sattler and Grant were both looking past Claire all the way to the end of the ship, where they saw a familiar figure clawing her way onto the edge of the ship with a piece of a soaked sweater clenched in her jaws.

 _"Blue?... BLUE!"_ Owen called as they all ran over, only for the raptor to turn with a snarl as they stopped a couple dozen feet away. Undisturbed yet still rather tense, Blue continued to reach back over the edge, pulling harder on the sweater as the small, humanoid body it belonged to became visible to the others.

 ** _"Maisie!"_** Owen held Claire back for a moment as Blue stood protectively over the unconscious child, gently holding out his hand to the raptor as he slowly and silently edged closer. Zia, Vivian, Lowery and Arnold all stayed behind Sattler, Grant and Malcolm as they all watched silently.

 _"Good girl... there's a good girl... there's a good girl..."_ Owen felt a small, warm smile stretch across his face as his hand rested on the dinosaur's face, calming Blue enough to let Claire get past. Claire got down on her knees as she turned Maisie onto her back, frantically pressing her daughter's chest with both hands to try and revive her.

 _"Come on honey, don't do this to me... ugh, you can do this... come on..._ ** _come on!_** _"_

It took about ten seconds before she jolted up and started violently coughing up the water from her lungs, but Maisie eventually opened her eyes again as she pulled herself up, being slightly surprised when Owen and Claire both trapped her in the tightest hug either of them could give. She was surprised at first, but returned the embrace as her breathing slowly returned to normal and she buried her head in her parents' chests.

 ** _"I could have saved more..."_** she panted out with a melancholy, regretful tone in her voice. **_"I just... I know I could have saved more..."_**

 _"Hey..."_ Claire sniffled as all three of them started crying in relief and joy, cupping her daughter's face so they saw eye-to-eye. _"Maze, you... you saved so many of them... they're all here because of you... we... we all are, Maisie..."_

Maisie let out a weak little laugh as she pulled away from them both, with her focus now turning to the raptor that was still watching them from a few inches away. Exchanging a confident nod with Owen and Claire, Maisie limped over to where Blue was and wrapped her arms tight around the raptor's neck, with Owen and Claire both keeping a hand gently pressed on her snout.

Malcolm grinned as he stood closer to Sattler and Grant, the three of them all looking each other as he said _"so... what now?"_

Grant shrugged as he looked to Sattler, who itched the back of her head as she said "well... we got all the dinosaurs on two big ships... what do you three say...?"

The Gradys all looked at them and then at each other, as Claire sighed and pulled herself to her feet. _"I um... well... hmm... I say we set a course for Isla Libre..."_

Maisie and Owen were both slightly surprised by this, with Maisie taking her mother's hand gently. _**"Claire, are... are you sure about this...?"**_

Claire nodded as she wiped her face with the back of her hand. _"Yeah... it's time they um... I think it's time they all went home..."_

* * *

Despite his true intentions at the time, _Isla Libre_ was everything that Mills had said it was that day. A vast valley of green trees and high mountains, with the large and strong rock walls that the formation had created only just being wide enough to allow the two carriers to enter it. The thrill that came from looking on it's beauty was something that could hardly be described, and it was easy to conclude that this hidden paradise would be a perfect new home for the dinosaurs to thrive in.

The beasts themselves wasted no time thundering off of the carriers onto the dry land in a mighty stampede, while the _Mosasaurus_ circled the island and disappeared under the rumbling waves. The _Tyrannosaurus_ stopped herself before the large green jungle, looking back to the ships and the humans on it as she let out her signature bellowing roar. By the time the Queen had disappeared into the forest brush, the main deck of the two carriers were almost completely devoid of dinosaurs of any kind, with the sole exception being the last _velociraptor_ that was preparing to head off.

Owen patted Blue gently on the nose, stroking the side of her face with her other hand as Maisie had the rest of her trapped in a final tight embrace. _"Take care of yourself, girl..."_ he gently said as he pulled his hand away, with Maisie wiping the tears from her face as she walked backwards towards Claire as well.

Blue stared at them silently for a few moments, before turning to see the vast land that was so close now. There were no buildings, no tourists, no scientists. Just the promise of freedom, preservation and survival, and it was all there for the taking. Glancing back a final time to the humans, Blue suddenly let out a high pitched caw as she darted across to the dry grassland and disappeared into the thick brush of trees and greenery.

Owen held his wife and daughter close as they looked to Grant, Sattler and Malcolm, all of whom nodded in response as they signalled to Lowery. He turned to the captain's quarters where Zia, Vivian and Arnold were all at the wheel, shouting **"that's all of them! Let's get a move on!"**

During her last descent the _Mosausaurus_ had managed to damage one of the carriers beyond repair, meaning that everyone had to get onboard the third and final ship back to the mainland. After about a half hour the island was nearly completely out of sight in the mist, though the Gradys all sat at the very end of the carrier to watch it as it slowly vanished from their view.

 _ **"So... you're not worried about them?"**_ Maisie looked to her parents with a brow raised, with Owen kissing the top of her head as Claire gently shook her own head, taking a moment to think.

 _"Worried about the dinosaurs? Hmm... nah... it's meant to be, Maze... besides, Karla's gone, and... and they're where they belong now."_

 _ **"Hmm... yeah."** _Maisie held herself close to her parents as she rested her head between their shoulders, a smile on her face as she looked at the island a final time and it faded away completely.

 _ **"And so am I."**_


	18. Life Finds An Epilogue

_"In other news, today marks the 40th anniversary of the original disaster at the fabled Jurassic Park. Now to some of you, the idea of living, breathing dinosaurs may seem a distant memory if not absolute myth since their mysterious disappearance twelve years ago, but many others still remember the time when those great beasts walked among us. And we're joined now by a very special young woman connected with the experiments of the now defunct InGen laboratories, quite literally since the day she was born. The current president of the Dinosaur Protection Group, Miss Maisie Lockwood-Grady. Welcome to the show, Miss Grady."_

 ** _"Oh, um... thank you. It's absolutely wonderful to be here, I... I've been a fan of this show for ages, actually..."_**

 _"Well, ha ha... that's very flattering, Miss. But anyway, about you... okay, so from you've told the public about yourself, Maisie, you were an artificially created clone, born from the harvested DNA of Benjamin Lockwood's late daughter..."_

 ** _"Well yes, that... that is true. He neglected to explain that to me, of course, so while he was alive, I just grew up calling him Grandpa."_**

 _"Must have been quite the revelation for you, then... especially when you started growing these little... features, eh?"_

 _ **"Hmm... well, I've nothing to hide. I mean, sure... I don't look like anyone else, but rest assured me that I'm no less human than anyone else here."**_

 _"Oh of course, of course... but it's commonly assumed, Maisie, that you and your family actually know where the dinosaurs went... do you have anything to say about this...?"_

 ** _"Well... hmm... yes, I do. To both questions, you know, I have something to say and I also do know where they are... I'll take the secret to my grave, but... they're somewhere safe, and that's what matters. I've not seen a dinosaur in twelve years but I know they're thriving... I can feel it..."_**

 _"Right, so really... I'm gathering that despite your organisation calling itself the Dinosaur Protection Group, you don't actually do any protecting of dinosaurs?"_

 ** _"Well, we all protect them, really... by staying away from them. Letting them be."_**

 _"Right... could you elaborate, please?"_

 ** _"Um... right, well... hmm... John Hammond, you know he was... he was a dear friend of my grandfather, and... he once said that the dinosaurs required our absence to survive, not our help. I didn't really think he was right about that back when I'd first heard it, but... but I think I do now. These dinosaurs may have been made in a lab, but... but they're alive. Like me. They're not a show, they're not experiments. They're wild animals, and they have the right to live like it."_**

 _"Hmm... well, this... laissez-faire attitude is certainly an interesting stance to take on the matter, Maisie. But do you really think a hopeful feeling is enough for the dinosaurs to prosper, wherever they are?"_

 _ **"Well, simply put... all we need to do now is trust in nature... and life will find a way."**_

* * *

 **JURASSIC WORLD**  
SPECIATION


End file.
